Merry Christmas!

It has been our family tradition to open our gifts on Christmas Eve with my grandparents... which we did this afternoon. :) I was thinking about why we celebrate Christmas. We are celebrating the fact that He humbled Himself and came to earth as a man. What an incredible gift of love. It is fun blessing each other with gifts and all, but all of this stuff is going to burn someday. At the end of the day, He is all that matters. Yes, I love the tripod that my older sister got me, but there is more to life than that stuff. It reminds me of Matthew 16:26.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

The fact is that we could literally gain everything the world has to offer and lose everything in the end. One question I like to ask myself (especially during the Christmas holidays) is, "Is God really all I need?" The obvious answer is, yes... but am I living in the in the reality of that? If He really is all I need, why do I want this stuff? Is He the center of my focus? To be honest, much of what I want is really quite self-centered. I would encourage you to consider the gifts you get as tools to help you do what He has called you to do more effectively. I'm not saying that I don't think God wants us to have fun and enjoy life. He commands us to rejoice, but it is important to keep an eternal mind-set even in these things.