December 22, 2014
The Perfect Gift
Do not … I repeat do not,
send a grandma to buy a football. I picked out an attractive buff colored
leather, NCAA ball, but I wasn’t sure if it was regulation, so I ask another
shopper if I had the right thing. Impressed with my selection he said, “Oh yeah,
any kid would love to have this. If it were for me [for an adult] I’d want the
NFL ball, but for an 11 year-old kid this is perfect.” I went to check out and
the man at the register said “Whoa! Leather. This is a grrrreat ball for a kid. Now don’t let him play with it in the
street because the asphalt will tear up the leather. He has to play with it on
the grass.” Both of these men were so smitten with the football, it was as
though they were rediscovering their11 year-old self and imagining getting such
a Christmas gift. I have to admit I just about croaked when the cash register rang
up the price, but at that point I wasn’t about to put that football back. After
all, I had it on good authority that this football was a perfect gift. I’m now wondering
if some of us, when we talk about the Lord to others, have forgotten that
emotional moment when we ourselves received the Perfect Gift of Jesus.
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Gail;
-----I never really considered the emotions of my conversion as any sort of verifier. When I went forward to be baptized I was scared witless. I knew it was something I had to do. The greatest emotion I had about it was that it was done; I didn’t have to go do stuff in front of a crowd of people again while wearing a wet robe only thinly veiling the pinkness of my adolescent little body. Two and a half years later, when I realized I had to start cultivating my relationship with Jesus, that I had to do more than think and feel about Him, I was much more emotionally ecstatic.
-----I don’t know how much God intends emotions to play in such things. My emotions were always so volatile and reversible that I eventually learned to greatly discount their meaning. That things are real piques my interests much more.
-----So, when I’ve worked hard to bring some of my behaviors more in line with God’s pleasures and see good things begin happening as a result, I get warmly excited. And too, when over the years I’ve watched archeology unearth revealing artifacts. I like to tell Char that God is speaking to people today through these discoveries, knocking on doors with declarations of His reality, answering scoffers and shutting accusing mouths. These things make me really excited. The 9th century BC Midian inscription that was the first discovered mention of King David outside Scriptural references; the large 10th century BC “tax” collection jars found at a distant, Israelite, outpost city verifying that David’s reign was indeed as extensive as the Bible indicated; an ossuary much debated and finally considered authentic inscribed with “James, the son of Joseph, brother of Jesus;” another elegantly decorated ossuary inscribed as being that of Caiaphas in which was discovered a crucifixion spike, and beside which was a second spike; these are just a few of the things that have lit up my emotions as God spoke answers to Biblical minimalists who were denying the historical existence of David, and then who denied his was an actual kingship after the Midian inscription revealed his reality, and who accuse the gospel records of being written full of fancy. I could hardly contain my emotions when I learned that a simple married couple of America’s heartland discovered a mixture of 15th century AD cotton rewoven into the linen fabric of the sample taken to carbon date the Turin Shroud; and my emotions have been more reverent to His reality than jubilant as I’ve read Ian Wilson’s revelation of historical details logically tying the Shroud of Turin with the Image of Edessa, almost irrefutably illuminating the Shroud’s history all the way back to Thadeus, one of the 70, who carried it to King Abgar V of Edessa shortly after the church had been established. But the thing which more founded my emotions into the reality of the Lord and His absolutely purposeful creation of this universe was studying the gospel written in the sky, the early meanings of the Zodiacal signs amongst the very ancients, and how those meanings attest to all 48 signs of the Zodiac spreading across the sky the gospel truth about Christ’s defeating the serpent and securing life and bliss for those who are His, and people’s penchant for muddying such messages He plainly gives.
-----I never really looked back to the emotionalism of my coming alive in Christ. At times I’ve wondered about myself because emotions were somewhat lacking, but not for long. They burn warmly, today, seeing the realities of the physical world joining hands with those of the written Word. His return only draws closer.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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