Unmerited Favor

I must confess: I haven't sent out Christmas cards in years. Not that I don't want to (I do), I just haven't been good at planning ahead and making the time. Yet we get them (and they're gratefully accepted!). People continue to send cards to our home, even without our doing the same.

I was fussing with them this evening - rearranging them, taping up photos of happy Christmas smiles, and generally feeling pretty happy about them - and I realized what a metaphor this is for the unmerited favor God bestows upon us. His graces are given - new ones, each and every morning - whether or not we are grateful, whether or not we are happy about it, and whether or not we recognize it, in an amazing show of love.

I pray this Christmas my heart will long for Him in a way it never has before - and that every moment I spend with Him will be with excited anticipation, as though I am getting Christmas cards fresh from the mailbox.