Happy birthday, Jesus!

In case anyone wondered, I hadn't forgotten in my previous post that this is in fact Christmas Day, I was saving it for a separate entry.

Here we are again. Another year, another Christmas. "The word became flesh" God's gift to us is still providing for us, still helping and blessing us through every Christmas past, present and future. There's really nothing we can give to pay him back, yet how many times do we try to earn his approval?

How can a child earn sonship? Is it with his first step? His first word? His first million? There is no earning sonship, only receiving it. We can choose to work at making God accept us or we can say "Thanks for being my daddy" and trust that we are, in fact, his kids.

What can we give back for the gift of Jesus? Nothing. We can't ever come close to repaying God and I don't think he wants us to either. A gift is not a loan. A gift can tell you a lot about the person that gave it and it demands attention. We should recognise the nature of God from his gift of Jesus and that should inspire us to live like we're special. Certainly, his kindness will result in action on our part but the difference is it's motivated by his love, knowing we're already accepted and we're allowed to screw up. It's good to know you're safe.