Perfect Love

loveThe dress, the flowers, the tux. Shoes, hair, etc. Such great lengths young people (and their parents) go to in order to make their high school prom a night to remember. We are in the thick of it at our house this week. It has me pondering young love quite a bit. It takes me back to the time when I was preparing for that special night. At that time It seemed like my prom date/boyfriend was “the one”—my happily ever after. Like the majority of high school romances, that proved to be false over time. I won’t tell you it was easy, but eventually we each moved on. I found “the one” during my senior year of college and we’ll soon be celebrating our 25th anniversary. What I know now and wished I knew 25 years ago is that my husband doesn’t even qualify as “the one.” Now don’t panic, we’re not headed to divorce court. My point is that there is only One who loves me perfectly and completely. His name is Jesus. He is the only One with the capacity to love you perfectly too. We will never find perfect love apart from Christ because everyone else falls short. It can be good, but it won’t be perfect. I could have saved myself quite a bit of heartache had I realized this sooner and not set such unrealistic expectations on Todd. I am a slow learner. Whether you are single and alone, single and dating, a newlywed, or have been married for years, this message is for you.

And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. (Ephesians 3:18, 19 NLT)

You are loved without condition by your Creator. There is nothing you can do to make Him love you any more, or any less. Receive His love today and celebrate!

The Unexpected

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog—The Ultimate Gift.  After numerous excuses on my part—too busy, not the right time, etc.—I decided it was time to follow Nike’s advice and “just do it.”  The ‘it’ I am referring to is answering the call to use my written words to glorify God by pointing others to Jesus, our true hope.

I really don’t know exactly what a blog is, but I found out that it’s a good place for an aspiring writer to start. The first step in setting up a blog is to come up with a domain name.  Of course my first choice, theultimategift.com, was already taken so I had to choose an alternative. The math teacher in me jumped all over replacing ‘ate’ with 8!

As we close in on the end of November many of us are starting to think about Christmas and the preparations that come with it, myself included. I was doing some online shopping shortly before I decided to plunge into the blog arena. That could have played a role in my title selection.  I had gifts on my mind.  I am wondering how many people might stumble onto this site because they are searching for ‘the ultimate gift’ this holiday season and find something completely unexpected.  Divine intervention perhaps?

Whether you found this site on purpose or by accident,  I have good news.  The pressure to find the ultimate gift is off. Our Heavenly Father took care of that over 2000 years ago when He descended from heaven and came to earth in the flesh of a baby named Jesus. Talk about unexpected!  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:17 NLT) Here’s the deal though—WE can’t give this gift, we can only receive it and share this Good News with others. Jesus can fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts, but we must invite Him in first. God won’t force us to unwrap the gift.  Having already opened it myself, I would ask, “What are you waiting for?”  There will never be a gift that will top it!

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV)