Welcome! This is my inaugural blog post. What better date to start then the week of Christmas.
Mary
is a great example of how God wants us to be a part of His plan. What better
way to show your youth, that average means a heck of a lot to God…. and talk
about a whack gift!
I’m
going to share a story that you may have heard, about a young guy graduating
college. He was a rich kid. The kind that you see on those episodes of “My
Super Sweet 16”. For graduation he was expecting this sports car he’d been
eying.
On
grad day, his father called him into his private study. His father told him how
proud he was to have such a fine son, how much he loved him and so on. Then he
handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box. The son opened it and found
a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the his name embossed in gold. Angrily he said
"with all your money, you give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the
house.
Many
years passed and the son was uber successful. But he was missing something in
life and realizing his father was very old he thought he should visit him. He
had not seen him since that college grad day. Before he could make
arrangements he received a call telling him his father had passed away, and
willed all of his possessions to him, his only son. He needed to come home
immediately and take care of things.
When
he arrived at his father's house sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He
searched through his father's important papers and saw the still gift-wrapped
Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears he opened the Bible and
began to turn the pages when a car key dropped from the back. It had a tag
with the words PAID IN FULL.
How
many times do we miss God's gifts because they are not wrapped in the package
we want them to be? Mary got super bunk packaging – but she didn’t reject the
gift.
When
we read Mary’s story in Luke1 it’s pretty crazy. Mary was super average - very poor
in fact. She loved God but her favor from Him was not for being extraordinary.
And the package of her “gift” was far from pleasant: explaining her “virgin”
pregnancy to the fam, fiancé and tribe, nine months of carrying a baby, the pains
of birth, and let’s not forget the pressure of raising the son of the universal
creator!
God’s
gift to Mary, us and our youth, is that He allows us to be a part of His plan
despite how insignificant we are, but we must not reject the package just because
it’s not the way we think it should be wrapped.
Have
an awesome Christmas,
Cindy
p.s. Awesome vid for youth of the Christmas story:
About me: I live a pretty simple life... trying to love God and treat others as good as myself... I epically fail at this but mercifully God loves me anyway... different cultures inspire me... the outdoors is my passion... I'm pursuing my MDIV / Masters in Counselling at Tyndale... I spent 22+ years in the skate / snowboard / entertainment / marketing / retail industry at the executive level... led the charge at West 49/Billabong for 12 of them... I've worked in youth ministry leadership roles for more years then I can count.. after many moons in the corporate world I switched to the dark side and am currently the Manager of Youth & Student Campaigns at World Vision Canada... but more then anything I love giving my heart to mentoring and helping youth! #lovelife #dreambig #keepitreal #socialjustice #jesusjustice T/I: @cindymielke facebook.com/cindymielke
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