5 Minute Friday: Present

Linking up with Lisa-Jo Baker and the crew for 5 Minute Friday. Although I must confess. Today I cheated. I couldn’t write.

I sat here thinking about this, “Writing is like wrapping yourself in words and giving yourself away.” ~@lisajobaker

And I remembered what this looked like for me. Except I called it ‘gift’ instead of ‘present’. Won’t you join me?

Repost from Sept 11, 2012, {Unwrap The Gift, Over and Over Again…}

It’s just a cardboard box. A small one my husband used to bring some groceries home this evening. Yet there she is holding the brown cardboard between her fingers.

She has a plan. I see it in her eyes. It’s the same glistening that occurs every single time she plans something so brilliant she can’t contain it.

She picks up the duct tape and the scissors and begins to cut pieces. I’m not sure what she’s planning. I keep reading my eBook.

Then she says in a really excited voice, “Mommy, did you get this for me?!!!”

I look up from the screen and see she has taped the box closed. Small pieces of grey duct tape, used to secure the box shut.

And I play along and smile, “Yes, it’s for you!”

She goes on to open the box. As though she had never seen it before, she takes out her favorite ladybug night-light and squeals like a little child opening Christmas presents.

“Oh mommy, I love it!!! Thank you so much!”

She takes out night-light and delights in her ‘gift’. She runs upstairs and tells daddy about the ‘present mommy got her’.

And I sit here and smile. How does she do that? How does she find joy… how does she create joy out of nothing?

She’s a wonder, that little one.

A few minutes pass. Out comes the box and the tape again. This time she puts in a different ‘gift’ to open. And she plays this game over and over, each time delighting as much as the first.

I want to be like that. I want to live my life in Christ in such a way that the ordinary is unwrapped daily and becomes extraordinary!

I want to tear off the wrapping paper and I want to open the corners of the box. I want to peak in with excitement and squeal with delight. I want to unwrap the gifts He’s already given me… life, my husband, my children, friends and family, salvation, grace, faith… I want to unwrap them over and over and I want to rejoice as though it were my first time opening them up…

And I want to be thankful, “Oh Daddy, I love it!!! Thank You!!”

Yes, she’s a wonder, that little one. I learn about abundant living simply by observing her.

And so, I unwrap the gift of revelation…

Who would’ve thought a cardboard box in the hands of a child could reveal so much?