Welcome November! As I enter the "Fall" of my life, I find it somewhat comforting that the Fall season has largely become my favorite time of year. The once-green leaves put off their verdant coats and turn brilliant shades of red and gold. The air is colder, but the sun still shines and while this may make one's steering wheel painfully hot to the touch, the passage from the cool out-of-doors to warm, relaxing car interior can be, mmmmm.
As a rule, I'm not much on annual celebrations. Oh, I don't mean the "big" holidays like Thanksgiving or the soon following Christmas and New Year's, and I'm certainly Not talking about Anniversaries like first time Penny & I dated or when we got married. And the kids birthdays always bring the family together.
But Labor day? Sounds like work. Boxing day? Nothing. Arbor day? Meh. I guess mostly I mean my own birthday. It's just not the same as when I was young. Sometimes it just feels like being congratulated on surviving another year in the slow, inevitable march towards death. My perspective changed, though when my wife told me in no uncertain terms, "Your birthday? It's not about you. It's about the people who love you." Yeah, wise words. I get it now.
When we're young, celebrating birthdays meant "Things" like cake and ice cream, presents, and possibly some cash, and maybe, god-forbid, a clown. As one grows older, it becomes harder to find "Things" that hold the same wonder as one's first bike, or the "Major Matt Mason" Astronaut toys, or the awesome "Secret Sam Attache Case Weapons Set" (vintage '65), but I digress.
As birthdays have come and gone, I find my attention has migrated from the Gift to the Giver. My wife is correct: "Gifts" pale when compared to "Givers." It's relationships and friendships I find most precious and awe-inspiring. I covet in maturity what I barely acknowledged in my youth. That a "Someone" chose to give has become far more wondrous to me than the "Something" that was given.
Of course having said that I am forced to admit that I am not nearly as mature as I would like. As an adult, some of my favorite gifts have been a 3D Minion Puzzle (thanks Kirk Heald) and a "Port-a-pig" (thanks Larry Bowen), and I still get disappointed when my wife brings home cereal that doesn't have a prize in the box. Yeah, I may be not the same youth that was so excited by the Secret Sam Attache case, but I still have a bit of "maturity" to cultivate.
Oddly enough, this same progression can be found in my salvation experience. In the early days of my Christian walk, I marveled at Salvation's Gift. Every answered prayer was fodder for excited conversation. And healings? Oh, yeah. Big news!
But now, I find that I covet my relationship with the Divine more and more. In awe I think how Salvation's Giver was willing to pay the price for my freedom. That the Advocate stands between me and a totally holy God. That Jehovah Rophi is willing to heal. These are the wonders that touch me deeply. The Giver is truly greater than the gift.
Recently, I have spent time listening to "high praise, and worship" music; what Mike Herron might call "Eagle" worship. One of my current favorites is "Here in Your Presence" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2bLUYz-Zvo). It is such a wondrous picture of worship. It takes my focus off "me" and centers it on God and, at least for a while, my problems, which moments before seemed so insurmountably big, fade into the background and become small, unimportant, "Somethings," swallowed up in the enormity of God's grace and provision.
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