Merry Christmas!!

Dear Bits Readers...


Merry Christmas!!


Matthew 7:11 says, "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"


Today is a day to celebrate a great and precious gift God gave to the whole world hundreds of years ago...in the birth of His Son.


But oh goodness...He hasn't stopped giving. He still arrives to us every day, bringing with Him gift He wouldn't have to give. Gifts we (more often than not) don't deserve. But He gives because it delights Him to see our smiles. It brings Him joy to watch our hearts overflow with pleasure.


I am so thankful for the gifts He has piled on this girl this year.


* He gave me freedom in exchange for a heart that had always been enslaved by fear.


* He gave me the opportunity to be loved, if even for a small season. It is not lost to me that some people go through years...even entire lifetimes...without knowing they're loved. I'm grateful to have experienced it.


* He gave me not one, not two, but three chances to take a vacation where I could create memories, celebrate with friends, and find healing for a wounded heart. (Best of all...a large portion of all three vacations were free!)


* He raised up friends and prayer warriors to carry me through the darkest months of my life. They hugged me, cried with me, drove many miles just to sit with me, lifted me before the Father when I could not pray for myself, encouraged me when I felt I might die, dragged me out of my house when I didn't have the strength, and even brought me food because I could not bring myself to arrange for my own meals some days.


* He kept me healthy when my eating/sleeping habits were so bad that I should have been sick. And even in the months of being unable to eat, He somehow kept me going physically.


* He preserved my job even in months when I was so broken I was incapable of doing it well. And in a world where so many struggle to find work, I do not take for granted the employment I have!


* He spoke to my heart in ways I've never experienced before, bringing me out of months of spiritual drought I'd been experiencing and affirming to me that I'm loved and worthy of His refining fire - even when it hurts.


* He blessed me with a dream come true in the publicaton of my book and has made that entire journey beautiful. I've loved hearing the way others have found His arrival in a new way through its words.


* He has given me great hope that although this was, in many ways, a year the locusts have eaten (with great lip-smacking, I might add), He will repay me in ways I cannot even imagine.


Oh yes. He still gives good gifts to His children.


And YOU are all a gift to me. Thank you for reading along with me this year. Thank you for praying for me. Loving me. Encouraging me. Leaving me comments to let me know you're there. (And Merry Christmas even to you lurkers. You're loved too.)


May He bring great joy to you today as you celebrate His birthday!!


Much Love....


Bekah