Tip 25-

Open the present!

This is the day! It is finally here! It’s Christmas. We have read the history of Jesus’ birth. The coffee pot brews cup after cup while adults wipe sleep from their puffy eyes and children bounce around the tree waiting for the present master to hand them a gift. All too soon, after a flurry of paper, the gifts sit in neat stacks beside the tree. Opened. Ooed and Ahhed over and then set aside.

Hmmm. Isn’t that we do with Jesus? Set up the nativity scene for a month. Gaze at it under twinkle lights or if you are fortunate, go watch a live performance of one (I was an angel in one once, man was I cold, but, best time ever). Keep Christmas Christian we chant. Kind of silly, huh? I can only keep it for me. I choose to have Christ in Christmas or not. I can set him aside or have a greater revelation of Him year after year, I can pray to have the eyes of my understanding opened. Open the present.

By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones),

⁹ And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength,

Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand in the heavenly [places],

 Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come.- Ephesians 1:18-21

He is present. We each have the opportunity to have our hearts flooded with light, to know the unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power.  As we celebrate Christ taking authority and setting up dominion in this world, let us practice it. Not put it in pile to be played with in a theology debate next Christmas. Join in the joy and  don’t set the gift aside!

Merry Christmas!