Ellen Chauvin | Soaked & Sprouting

Soaked in God's Word, Sprouting Seeds of Faith

My Debt is Paid – A Christmas Story of Love

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My last Christmas at home. I wasn’t sad or bittersweet…I was over the top excited! I would be getting married in six months, and would spend the following Christmases with my new husband. Who could ask for anything more?

I loved Christmas mornings at Mama and Daddy’s. It was always a free-for-all. Everyone opened their gifts at the same time. Shouts of “Aw, thanks! Just what I wanted” or “What IS it?” filled the room. It was no different that Christmas morning. Wild and crazy excitement filled the air. Except when I got to one particular gift. Everything and everyone quieted down.

I ripped into the wrapping paper, and found – a cereal box! Mama was always like that. Wrapping our gifts in whatever box she found. I couldn’t imagine what was inside that plain ole box. For all I knew, it could have been cereal!

But it wasn’t. It was an envelope, with a piece of paper folded up inside. I carefully opened the paper, to find the title to my car. Mama and Daddy had not wanted me to go into this marriage with an outstanding loan. They had paid off the remaining few months of my car note. They had paid my debt.

Tears of gratitude streamed down my face. I tried to say thank you, but the lump in my throat kept the words inside. They loved me so much, they paid my debt. It was the greatest gift they could have given me.

 

There was another gift given long, long ago. No fanfare or fancy wrapping. Just a baby in a stable, wrapped in dirty cloths. God’s Son. The Messiah. Immanuel, God with us. Jesus.

  • How often do we squeal with delight at the gifts under the tree, but forget the tree at Calvary?
  • How often do we see the red of the Christmas season, but forget His blood that was shed?
  • How often are we brought to tears of thankfulness for the greatest gift God gave…His Son Jesus, paying our debt of sin?

My prayer this Christmas, and every day, is that we would be like the shepherds, after seeing Baby Jesus.

Luke 2:20 “And the shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.”

Merry Christmas!
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One Man’s Trash – A Christmas Gift of Love

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Eyes wide, I tiptoed toward the Christmas tree. Slowly I moved closer. That’s when I saw it – the most beautiful doll cradle I had ever seen. I could hardly believe it was mine. Santa must have left it at the wrong house!

Reaching out my hand, I touched the cradle and gave it a gentle push. It rocked slowly, causing the white-as-snow fabric that skirted it, to sway slightly. I peeked inside and saw a miniature pillow, covered in matching white eyelet fabric. My eyes sparkled at the thought of my sweet baby doll’s head sleeping on this pillow.

Lifting the fabric skirt, I took a look underneath at the cradle. The smell of fresh paint wafted up. Ah, fresh paint! The white cradle and rockers had to be brand new, with that smell. I hardly noticed the patched holes in the wicker. This baby doll cradle was so much newer and nicer than the one my Mama had picked up off a trash pile a few weeks ago!

Years later, Mama told me the story of that cradle. One of our neighbors had evidently cleaned out all their closets. There was a large trash pile in front of their house. Driving past, something caught Mama’s eye. She pulled to the side of the road, and I watched as she plucked something from the top of the mound. It was an old battered doll cradle. The once-white wicker had turned a weathered gray, with many holes in the sides. The rocking cradles were broken. What I saw was just a piece of junk on the top of the heap. But Mama saw the beauty in it.

In the evenings, after my brother and I had gone to bed, Mama and Daddy became Santa’s elves. Daddy cut and sanded two new rockers and put a fresh coat of paint, while Mama patched the wicker and sewed the eyelet skirt and pillow. They worked and worked until the doll cradle looked brand new.

It was the most beautiful gift – so full of love. And isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

Doesn’t Jesus do the same for us? He picks us up off the trash pile of life. He pours His love over us, like a fresh coat of paint. He puts a new heart and a new spirit in us. He patches the holes of our hurts, and gives us renewed strength for this rocky life. He cradles us. Jesus doesn’t see us as the broken and torn people that we are – He sees the beauty of who we can be in Him. And He works and works on us until we are brand new.

What a beautiful gift of love.

And isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

Merry Christmas!

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Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

 

Linking up with The Weekend Brew and Testimony Tuesday