Love came down at Christmas

Days have a way of creeping up on us and days have a way of passing by so quickly. It is quite possible that I have connection with days that may seem weird to many. When I was a teenager, my mother bought me my first journal. I started then writing things down. Recording events, happenings in my life, people, feelings, if you can name it I’ve written about it to myself. In the 56th year of my life, I recorded my thinking in a different way. I shared through social media my daily thoughts of encouragement. Things that I wondered about, believed, had confidence in and encouraged myself with. On the 301st day of the 56th year of my life I wrote: “The greatest gift is love. The most precious gift is time. Opportunity is where these two change lives”. Following Thanksgiving, Christians began a Season in their lives referred to as Advent. Advent is about the coming of the Lord as the Savior of the World. I’ve been thinking this year as the 4 weeks before Christmas arrived that Advent is really a “seekers” celebration. We Christians might hold the time dear because of our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but Advent this year I have been thinking about back to a time before I knew Jesus personally. As a person who was just living life, day by day, doing what I’m thinking most of us do, just living and whatever happens, well, just happens. That’s rather carefree living but as a “seeker’ there is something in life that I know is missing. “Seekers’ have this feeling inside but we can’t seem to put our finger on what’s happening. So we keep looking, we live our lives in such a way that we are hoping whatever is missing, we will bump into it. The Wise men in the Christian narrative of the birth of Jesus were seekers. The difference between them and many wondering people is that they had seen His Star in the East and we're on a journey to find the Christ child because they had seen. Christmas I sum up in the words “Love Came Down at Christmas”. The greatest gift in this world is love. Love has been defined by Jesus and what He did for us that we could not do for ourselves. Love’s characteristics have been defined by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Love is the gift that changed everything. The dually important and equal gift in life is also time. If you searched the Bible you will find plenty about time, how it has operated, how time has been recorded through the lives of so many individuals and how time has been noted through history. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 has a great collection of issues, themes, discoveries, and truths about time. It is often referred to as a time for everything when quoting headlines of scripture. Time is that unique moment that when it happens, it is now or never. My quote references love and time as two of the greatest gifts. The element that brings these two into perfect harmony is opportunity. If you have love, but don’t give it away, what is its value? If you are looking for recognition that you have love in your possessions, congratulations on hanging on to love, but if you are only holding it, what remains its value if not used? Time is not a difficult concept to understand. It ticks away in seconds. I would suggest the easiest way to grasp the concept of time is to simply sit around, do nothing and let time just tick away. I’ve responded to the question before, “what are you doing?”, with the answer nothing, which could be either really sad because I was just in a state of lack of purpose, and had been wasting time, or it could be the perfect moment because I could be free and available, which is opportunity for me. Love, time and opportunity, three great companions of change! I am not sure how you spend your days or record your time, but both are important tools that when mixed with opportunity will allow us to use what we possess for change. Until then