God Gives

God gives to us each and every day. Recently God has been giving SO much to me and I am overflowing with gratefulness. Just this month I have been accepted into the nursing program AND celebrated my favorite Holiday, Christmas. Of course God's giving at Christmas time was spanned across the whole world as he gave us his son to save us all. While these things are pretty great I think it's the little things God gives us that we need to be most thankful for.

My Church and I recently went on a trip Christmas Caroling, which is normally something I would be all for, but this year I was feeling a bit apprehensive. I had some things going on in my personal life that were affecting my emotions and unfortunately affecting my Christmas spirit. Little did I know that God would be giving me an experience that would get my mind off of the negatives and onto the most important thing, himself and the birth of his son, our savior. We had stopped at two houses and were on to the third, a little house just off the beaten path with a tiny gravel driveway. We finished up our rounds of Silent Night, Away in a Manger, Oh Beautiful Star, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas and we hopped back on the vans. We weren't sure how to get out because we were blocked on one side and would've had to back out on the other. Nonetheless we attempted the latter. As one van began to back out we heard something that wasn't so pleasing to the ear. The church van had gotten stuck in the mud. While for most people this would've been a negative experience for us it was a good laugh, a test of teamwork, and a time for silent prayer. We all began pushing and praying and eventually got the van out. God gave me that moment to not only spend time with the ones I love, but he gave me that time as a learning experience and a way to get the negatives off of my mind. While we had gotten stuck at one house, that didn't stop us. We went on to go caroling for three more hours. This is definitely one night that I will never forget as long as I live. 

While God gave me a gift that night he hasn't stopped giving since. God has given me great memories with my family and great blessings of love, friendship, and happiness. During this season of giving the greatest gifts have come from God. James 1:17 celebrates his giving by saying:

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation of shadow due to change."

God is always giving, he is never changing, and he is constantly blessing us. Even the little things are gifts from God, be thankful for your gifts, for they are good.