True Gifts { they keep giving }

I just finished my book, that wonderful gift from my Mom. 'I think you will like this book, Kelsey. Her writing style is similar to yours. A sort of poetry...' And so I embarked on my journey, into One Thousand Gifts, through the pages of Ann's story: her search for joy, and her discovery - eucharisteo. It all came back to thanks, to gratitude, and the giving of the gifts back to the Giver. Her words resounded in me, because I, too, have stumbled up this truth.

Spend the whole of your one wild and beautiful life in investing in many lives, and God simply will not be outdone. God extravagantly pays back everything we give away and exactly in the currency that is not of this world but the one we yearn for: Joy in Him.

It is when our lives become an outpouring of His unending joy that we can truly experience the fullness of the life He wants us to live. Do not hold back.

As we celebrate Christmas, let us now forget His ultimate gift. He gave everything. God laid down all of His fullness into all of the emptiness.

Christian hands never clasp

and He doesn't give gifts for gain

because a gift can never stop being a gift -

it is always meant to be given.

These past seven months have been a wonderful gift to me. Christ has lavished me with countless gifts, and the more I reflect upon them, the more I find to be thankful for. My focus is directed upward, and my love flows outward. True Christianity is a gift that keeps on giving, and never stops. A beautiful, wonder-filled, immeasurable gift from the Father to His beloved children, one that they continue to give back until the end of time.

Our expression of thanks becomes a blessing, and our outpouring of love to others is the gift back to Christ. Beautiful in its simplicity, astounding in its magnitude. The gift that gives on...