The Gifts.....

I am so excited.....I love getting gifts. Who doesn't. The holidays are past, its not my birthday, and Valentines isn't even here yet. But yet there are gifts everywhere. What....you don't see them? They are here, but many times we just look right past them, failing to see what is right in front of our eyes, even refusing to take them when they are offered to us. I had read a book once that talked about that very thing. There was a man that stood at the pearly gates of heaven and as he was entering in, he asked Peter, "What is in the big warehouse over there?" Peter says "you can't see that yet." As the tour of heaven began, the man couldn't concentrate on anything else, but what was in that warehouse.....what could God possibly be keeping in such a big building....the mere size of it was unfathomable. As Peter completes his tour the man could not contain his curiousity any longer and began to run to the warehouse, he threw open the door and stood in amazement. There were presents everywhere, stacked from floor to ceiling, row after row after row. He looks at Peter with bewilderment and says "I don't understand, what's with all these presents?" Peter responds to the man, "you were not supposed to see them." The man in confusion begins to wander down the rows, until he notices his name on the tags and as he looks around, they all have his name on the tags. He begins to weep and again looks at Peter and says, "all these are for me?" Peter responds "NO, all these WERE for you, these are the ones that God tried to give you but you failed to receive." At this the man fell to his knees weeping even harder. "How did I not see, how did I not know, why did I not accept all that God wanted to give me."

I think of that story often and its been years since I've read that book. What gifts is God trying to give me today? What will I have missed, if my heart and my mind are not ready to receive. Whose life could have been transformed......maybe even mine, had I stood with my arms open ready to receive what God wanted to give me. God's ready to rain down his blessings...his gifts.... its all in whether we are ready and willing to receive them. I don't want to miss one present, NOT one gift from God. I want to get to Heaven and God say.....you received well....and you gave well. I want to arrive in heaven with all my gifts opened and received. Thank you Lord....for the gifts.