Three days from now, we will celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus Christ. The Lord of Heaven and Earth came to us in the form of a helpless infant. What a gift a baby is! What a sacrifice Jesus made to become human and to willingly accept and embrace human suffering and trials.
How many of us willingly accept the suffering and trials in our lives? How many would choose an easier path if faced with the decision? I know there are divorce survivors who are thankful for the experience, but I cannot quite bring myself to that point. Despite all I’ve learned I would have preferred to continue married life, blissfully ignorant of the dimensions of the world I now know, if I had been given a choice.
While I know I would never choose divorce as Jesus chose to become human, I can choose to make the best of my situation. The Lord gave me the most incredible gift: himself as a perfect baby in the form of Jesus. When my husband left, I was scared and pregnant and alone, but again God had again given me this beautiful gift, this innocent child to treasure and care for and love.
Jesus and my five boys all began life as perfect innocent children. They are beautiful gifts from God, not just for me, but for the world. Who am I to receive such gifts? Am I worthy of any of them?
The answer to that is simple: I am far from worthy. I know I am not worthy of my boys who are perfectly lovable but lovingly less than perfect. More importantly, I am not worthy to even consider whether I am worthy of Jesus.
And yet I am worthy because God wants me to be.
And that places a huge responsibility on me. If I am worthy of God’s love because he thinks I am, how will I show it? How will I live my life to show that I am the glory of God’s creation? That I am worthy of the gift of that Baby lying in the manger?
How will I treasure myself to show I am worthy? That means taking time out to do something for myself. Too often as wives and mothers we put ourselves on the back burner. We think our time will come when everyone else has had their fill, but that cannot be. We too are God’s creations. We too are worthy of the gift of time.
Showing we are worthy begins with finding time for oneself. I am still working on finding time and ways to treasure myself and grow in glory. I hope you do too.
To treat myself as a treasured gift this week I…
- Decorated the house for Christmas
- Took a walk with a friend
Something to Think About:
Do you believe you are worthy of the gift of the BabyJesus?
List three ways you treasured yourself this week.