Advent ~Eighteen~

Advent ~Eighteen~

"You've got to use the life you've been given to give others life."

"The Greatest Gift"

Queen Esther was a young Jewish woman chosen to be the wife of the Persian King.  She was not chosen by accident or by chance.  God had her right where He wanted her.  She would risk her life before the king to save the Jewish population from annihilation.
You can read her story in the book of Esther in the Old Testament.

She was asked this question..."Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?"

Have you ever heard someone lament that they were born in the wrong era? It seems like a sad way to live out one's life....wishing you weren't where you are and who you are. The focus of their life becomes what they don't have instead of being grateful and generous with what they do have.

Here are some humbling facts from today's Advent reading....

• If you have food in your fridge, any clothes in your closet, any small roof, rented or owned, over your head, you are richer than 75% of the world.
• If you have anything saved in the bank, any bills in your wallet, any spare change in a jar, you are one of the top 8% wealthiest people in the world.
• If you can read these words right now, you have a gift 3 billion people right now don't.  If your stomach isn't twisted in hunger pangs, you have a gift that 1 billion people right now don't.
• If you know Christ as the greatest Gift, you have a gift that untold millions of people right now don't.

I believe that your existence in this time and place and my existence in this time and place are not by accident or chance.  Like Queen Esther we have something to give to the people around us.  In God's economy even a cup of cold water is rewarded.

My dad and I had a new experience today.  We went to a Christmas Tea at the nursing home where he now lives.  He sure loved those little sugary delicacies! I nod my head up and down and smile alot when I'm there. I am surrounded by the elderly who have lost their hearing, their eyesight and their independence. Walkers, wheel chairs and canes abound.

I have learned that a gentle handshake, a touch on a shoulder, a hug, remembering a name and even a simple warm smile will light up their sweet weathered faces.

So, I ask you what Ann Voskamp asked me in her reflection questions...

"What specific gifts has God given you? 

"How might you use some of your gifts to help others--for such a time as this?