Psalm 103:17-18 says, “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children–with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”
You can probably name on one hand the things that are everlasting, the ones that were here before you and will still be here after you’re gone. Most things fit into some mold of planned obsolescence and have a timeline. When we reach the end of it, we become an heirloom, a legacy, a memory at best. We like to think we will love someone forever, but our forever is more a matter of heart and spirit than reality.
God is the exception. God was here before you and He’ll still be here when you’re roaming around heaven. He doesn’t have a beginning, middle and end, like some kind of good story, He just is. He always has been and always will be. That is not an easy concept. We have no idea what forever really means, but if we were to speculate, then Christmas is a great place to begin the journey.
At Christmas, God sent a gift to earth. He wanted His people to find their way back to Him so that they would not be finite, but would be able to live and love and laugh with Him for eternity. He wanted a relationship that would never end and so a baby born in a manger was His answer, His solution. Who doesn’t love a baby? What better way for God to try to relate to human beings than through an innocent, holy child, straight from heaven and made in God’s image!
Most of us will spend a lifetime tiptoeing up to that cradle. We’ll look in at the baby Jesus and want to give Him all we have to show Him our love. It’s a wonderful thing and God is glad to remind us every season, every year that He loves to see us coming toward the manger. He has incredible love for every child of God that will last forever.
If you don’t know how to wrap the gift of forever, go back and take another peek in the manger.
God’s love is with you now…and always!