Daily Devotionals for Women - Today's Encouraging Word from Scripture

THE UNWRAPPING OF A LOVE LETTER

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. John 1:1 and 2

Do you remember what it was like to wait for a specific Christmas present? The suspense only lasted for, at most, a couple of months. But what about the gift you might have to wait several hundred years for? And once you begin to unwrap it, you realize that you can only do so in increments?

The Treasure that she, Israel, had been waiting for expectantly for over a millennia was born in the middle of the night. He was unwrapped by His birth but then wrapped again, constricted straight as an arrow, in swaddling clothes. Symbolically, this was an interesting picture because He would never turn to the right or to the left but would keep Himself from evil. He was the Rock of Ages, the stone that the builders rejected; yet Satan tempted Him by telling Him to turn a stone into bread. He was the Bread of Life, the giver of the blood that cleanses, but instead of being received, He was spat upon. Coming with gold, frankincense, and myrrh, wise men would visit the Gift, yet when He was brutally killed, all that was left of value were His garments.

This Gift took thirty-three years to unwrap, but with a single word, the Word made flesh can create, destroy, and will call up His people to His side. He was born in the dark, helping us understand that not all secrets are to be shared in the light. As the sun rises slowly in the sky, so it took thirty years for the Son of God to be recognized as the Lamb of God. We have to be clothed in His righteousness, cleansed by His blood, in order to stand before His Father and not be instantly destroyed. How ironic that He is the Light of the world but most of His creation will choose the dark.

So, this Christmas, will we unwrap the perfect Gift that God the Father gave to us, or will we reject the One Who gave up everything to make us coheirs by His side?

Heavenly Father, thank You for this gift. I am overwhelmed by the fact that You would give me Your Son to die for me. You let Him be slaughtered as a lamb so that His blood could cover me. This is what Christmas is about. Help me to never forget it. In Jesus most precious name, Amen