In The Afterglow

Yesterday was the Party of all parties!  Your Party, Lord.  Your Birthday Party!

Today, I’m experiencing an “afterglow” from that Party unlike any I have ever experienced before.

In a very unusual way, I was “partying hard” yesterday.  As a result, I didn’t journal last night.  Yet my “hard partying” had nothing to do with alcohol or any other mind-altering drug.

This wasn’t always the case in my life.  Long ago, I used to “party hard” with any number of substances that left me somewhere on the continuum from lethargic to catatonic.  Thanks to Your deliverance from all that, Lord, Your mind-enhancing “cocktails” are the only ones I will ever want.  The only ones I truly need.

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.  Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.  Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  (Ephesians 5:18-20)

Yesterday’s “partying” was… different, Lord.  How can I describe it?  A new, fresh experience of something I have experienced many times before?  Yet this time…

Bigger?  Better?  More?

It was about the giving, Lord.  The indescribable, irrefutable and irreplaceable JOY that comes from giving to others from the heart.

Not the buying of “anything” just to have something to give.  Not the buying of the latest, “greatest” thing that “everybody” wants because it’s “in.”  Not even the buying of some practical gadget someone needs or could use.

But the sensing of that personal touch only a Special Gift can make.

A Gift of Meaning.  A Gift of Significance.  A Gift of Life.

By Your Grace, Lord, I found — and gave — a few Gifts like that this year.  Gifts inspired by Your Spirit.  For Your Good Purposes in the lives of those who are dear to me.

So my anticipation yesterday morning was not about what might be under the tree for me. It was about the reaction of those who were receiving the Special Gifts You inspired me to give.  How I wish I could have been a “fly on the wall” to see their faces for myself!

🙂

You understand that feeling… don’t You, Lord?  Because yesterday was all about the indescribable, irrefutable and irreplaceable JOY You felt when You gave Your Most Special Gift to all of us… from Your heart.

The Gift of Yourself.

You, too, wait in eager anticipation for our reaction to Your Gift… don’t You, Lord?  You wait with Loving Expectancy.

Will we recognize that what You offer us is not just “a” gift… but The Gift of Meaning?  The Gift of Significance?  The Gift of Life?

Or will we look to anything — everything — else to fill the hole in our hearts, turning only a blind eye to You?

I felt The Afterglow when I heard about how my loved ones responded to the Special Gifts You inspired me to give.  It was as if You had released Arrows of Love, Lord… and they all had hit their marks.

I felt The Afterglow when I treated myself to my annual viewing of the DVD, “The Nativity Story.”  How can I watch that visual depiction of Your Coming, Lord, without worshiping You all the more?

I feel The Afterglow even now.  Because yesterday’s Party was not just an annual event.

It was — and is — an Eternal Celebration!

“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.  For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of His righteousness…”  (Isaiah 61:10)

Forever Yours,

Abba’s Girl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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