Dig A Little Deeper (December 2020)

I was nine years of age, and it was Christmas time. It was always a given that before Christmas, I knew exactly what I wanted and would have mentioned that several times. This year, however, I had thought of several things that I liked; but I couldn’t settle down to that one special gift. I looked through the Sears catalog several times making my check marks and x’s, but I just couldn’t narrow it down. I decided that I would let Santa Clause choose for me.

Christmas morning came, and my sister, Teresa, and I ran with all our might to look beneath the Christmas tree. There was my sister’s special gift. It was obvious that she had received that pretty, pink bike that she had been asking for, for months. …But where was my gift? I looked under the tree from one end to the other, picking up gifts, thinking that maybe mine had slid under another. I checked on the tree’s branches but found only the lights, the ornaments, and the tinsel. I began to cry. Santa had forgotten me. There was no evidence of something special for me this year. Had I been “naughty.” That must be the case.

Finally, my mother suggested, “Maybe, you should look in your stocking.”

I ran to my stocking which hung on our door. I found oranges, apples, English walnuts, and chocolate Hershey’s. I liked those things, but where was my gift? Teresa was giggling over her new bike, but I began to feel tears slide down my face. I stopped my search in the stocking as I held it in my hands. Mother suggested that I dig a little deeper. I did so. I finally reached the bottom of my stocking; and through my tears, I found a little black box. I quickly pulled it from its place and with hands shaking, I opened it. There was the most beautiful watch. It was ticking away. I noticed that on the face of the watch was an inverted pendulum. With every tick, the pendulum moved to the right and then to the left. I thought that was the prettiest watch that I had ever seen. (Please see below.) An emotion of sadness had previously flooded my heart before I allowed the facts to appear. The emotions painted me “naughty”, punished, rejected, and one of unimportance. Finding the fact that I had a gift all along changed my broken heart to a heart filled with joy.

Have we allowed what we see or don’t see to dictate to us what the facts must be? God’s Word is the fact; the Truth. We often allow feelings to flood our hearts because we accept as fact what our senses declare. I may not feel saved some days, but that doesn’t change the fact that I have been born again. The fact is that I had called upon the name of the Lord many years ago, and I was saved (Romans 10:13).

I may define myself as “naughty” because I consider my sins, what others have said about me, the failures that I have had, or what the devil whispers into my ear. Do I accept “naughty” as a fact, or do I accept the fact that God said that my sins are forgiven when I confessed them to Him (1 John 1:9)? Do I accept Ephesians 1:6, “…he hath made us accepted in the beloved?” Do I accept 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For he (God) hath made him (Jesus) to be sin for us (me), who knew no sin; that we (I) might be made the righteousness of God in him?” I can’t be “naughty”, God calls me “forgiven,” “accepted,” and “righteous” because of Jesus.

God say’s, “Dig a little deeper. Don’t give up. Don’t be moved by a delayed gift; just know that My gift to you is coming.”