What is your favorite Christmas memory? Mine is when I was a boy. My younger brother and I would sneak into our parent's room to see what they got us for Christmas. We would find our presents in their closet and go through all of them picking out which ones were mine and which ones were my brothers's. As time progressed, our parents realized what we were doing and became secret agents in our home. When they hid the presents . . . we had no idea where!
Trying to outsmart our parents, my brother and I waited until three days before Christmas to enact our new plan of discovering our Christmas presents. We would wail until my father was at work and my mother was busy with clients downstairs in our home in NY. When we knew that we were all alone, my brother and I would carefully open a corner of the presents to see what was inside. We tested which box to spy on by lifting it up in the air and shaking it to hear and feel its contents.
When our parents figured out our new plan of discovering our presents, they hid the presents from us until Christmas Eve!! All I wanted to do was know what we were getting. There was something about knowing what we were getting that made Christmas fun for us. Not knowing was fun also but knowing and then pretending we didn't know made my brother and I laugh so hard. This Christmas, God wants you to know what you are getting. In fact, if you allow Him, He will gift you with something money can't buy.
Listen, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." - Galatians 5:22, 23, KJV. With the Spirit of God, you . . . today . . . right now . . . this Christmas . . . can have the greatest gift of all . . . the fruits of the Spirit of God. Love in order to impact someone's life. Peace in order to experience heaven on earth. Long-suffering in order to deal with the pains of this life.
Gentleness so that you can inspire those around you. Goodness so that you can show the greatness of God by your life. Faith so that others can see what it is like to follow God. Meekness so that your example is worth emulating. And temperance so that all can see that a human can do the impossible by serving a God of the possible! May you this Christmas season realize the love God has bestowed on you and your loved ones.
Merry Christmas! We hope and pray that this Christmas season our church family will have helped you create, experience and live out memories that will live for the rest of your life. God bless you and your loved ones!
So, until the next time this is Pastor Tello reminding you that thoughts do change lives.
Pastor Howard Tello