The signboard message posted on December 27, 2014 read:
LIFE IS A GIFT.
THAT’S WHY THEY CALL IT
THE PRESENT.
OK. Maybe a cheep pun. Maybe cliche. Whenever we think of someone who survived a serious disease or somehow dodged a life threatening accident, a string of sayings pops into mind to remind us that life is indeed fragile. Whenever some unusual event threatens our lives, we are able to see life as a gift from God.
But what about during normal times? What if you’re perfectly healthy? What if you spent the day far removed from any cars running stop signs, or guns being fired, or even from pianos falling from 3rd floor apartment buildings (the cartoon cliche movers)? Is life still a gift? Does God still enter in?
Yes He Does!
Check out these verses from the Bible:
1 Corinthians 1:6
…yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
Hebrews 2:10-11
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
John 1:1-2
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
Psalm 139:1-4
O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.
Matthew 6:25-26
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Matthew 6:28-30
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Even on our best days, we are completely dependent on God. For everything! Even nature isn’t on 
autopilot; if the sun came up this morning, God caused it to happen.
During this Christmas season as we think about gifts and blessings or about the future and resolutions, let’s remember that each and every breathing moment is a gift from God.
How are you using your gift… right now???
OK. Maybe a cheep pun. Maybe cliche. Whenever we think of someone who survived a serious disease or somehow dodged a life threatening accident, a string of sayings pops into mind to remind us that life is indeed fragile. Whenever some unusual event threatens our lives, we are able to see life as a gift from God.
autopilot; if the sun came up this morning, God caused it to happen.