Flip the Script

Ahhh, the season of Christmas has arrived.  The gift buying is in full swing as well as decorations galore.  I actually spent 10 minutes on the gift wrap aisle trying to find the perfect gift wrap paper....seriously!  Note: this will be paper disposed of in 3 weeks!  The machine of Christmas has begun its march into my mind and actions.
I've asked and been asked, "What do you want for Christmas".  We all want to purchase the perfect gifts for each other.  We want to avoid those awkward Christmas morning moments of nervousness when we are secretly thinking, "Oh, I hope I like this gift or at least, act like I love this present from my mother-in-law!  Can I fake my joy"?

What do you want for Christmas?  I've been asked this question so often that I hear myself lamely reply, "Oh, I just don't know.  I don't NEED anything!"  But that's a lie, for sure!  I need.  So, maybe the question is, "What do you need for Christmas"?  Instead of our normal focus: what to cook, what we'll buy, what activities we'll organize, what sweater to purchase... can we flip the script this week?  Can we stop for today and ask a different question?

What does HE bring this Christmas?  This Jesus we are celebrating...what is He bringing you this Christmas?  What do you want from Jesus this Christmas?  What do you need?

Whoever you are today, wherever you are, I know one thing about you and about me: we need.  All of us need Jesus this Christmas.  Our quick minds may ask:
1. Doesn't He need my wish-list, my Pinterest page?  Does He have any idea of what I'd really like so I don't have to fake my response?
2.  Can I trust Him to give me my heart's desire?
3.  Does He give good gifts?

When Mary had her visit from the angel, she must have had similar thoughts.

...The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Luke 1:27b-35

I certainly don't presume to know or understand the depth of this story, Mary's feelings or her need but what I DO know is what verse 35 says:
"The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." 
This is a Christmas gift waiting for you and me.  Whatever our need, whatever our situation, whatever is on our Christmas list....the Most High will overshadow you.  He will be there, He will heal, He will love, He will answer, He will give us exactly the perfect gift.  For He is a God who gives only good gifts.  We have no fear of what's inside the box and hoping we like it.  For what's inside the box we unwrap from Him is perfectly made and chosen for you and me.

One Christmas, when my daughter, Sarah, was 5 or 6 years old she presented me with a gift.  She had wrapped it herself.  The wrapping around the shoe box was crooked, wrinkled and the bow was loosely hanging.  She handed it to me and encouraged me to open it.  I'll never forget how she stood...so excited, her little hands clasped behind her back as she stood in her little pink gown.  "Open it, Mama".  And yes, in fear that I would have the right reaction, I begin to open this imperfect box.  Once I removed the wrapping, I removed the lid....as I looked through the tissue paper...it was empty.  I looked up at my Sarah, and she stood there beaming..."it's all my love, Mama."  I didn't have to fake my reaction for it was the one true gift I needed that day.

Flip the script of your heart....what do you need for Christmas?