Life is a gift

Making family memories!

The holiday season is great. There is truly nothing better than spending time with family and friends while feasting on our favorite foods. Exchanging and receiving gifts while feasting more on our favorite foods. When the glorious New Year arrives we reflect back on the past with hope for the future, all while feasting on our favorite foods. After indulging on food, laughing hysterically, and giving hugs and kisses to those we love, we assuredly come back to the commonality of what every individual has been given: the precious gift of Life.

Some say life is simple. Others disagree and say life is complicated. I’ve heard life’s purpose is about gain and promotion and I’ve also heard it's simply about giving and sacrifice. Some people believe life is expensive, while others view life as being free. There have definitely been times and seasons where life appeared complicated and hard. I’ve also experienced my fair share of striving to gain and obtain while thinking life is not cheap. However, meditating on this last year and entering into a new year I realized how much my perspective on life is completely changing.

By: Cost of Discipleship Blogspot

I have discovered life is truly free and the most valuable commodities in life actually don’t cost a cent. Take time for instance. I’ve never had to exchange a dollar to experience another minute or hour. I’ve never had to work and labor in achieving an extra day or month. People are significantly valuable, yet I never purchased my wife, nor used a charge card to acquire my children. A check has never been written to change or create the beauty of winter, spring, summer, or autumn. Nor has it ever been costly to experience the awe of sunsets, rainbows, and starry nights.

Life is a gift. Life is simple, and life is free. I had a dream the night before New Years Eve and it freed me. I share it with you because I believe God is calling us as children, to enjoy the priceless treasures He has freely given us, simply in its purest form.

The dream unfolded with the scene of an enormous arena filled with hundreds of people from all over the world. It was an arena that reminded me of the American Gladiator Stadium but without the gladiators and there wasn't any sort of competition happening. Every individual was eager and thrilled to be part of this climatic gathering. Some people I recognized and others I’ve never seen before, but I felt relationally connected to all these people in my life. There was such an overwhelming sense of peace, love, unity and respect for one another, each individual’s presence contributing to this cocktail of brotherly love. Then we were filled with this explosive energy! This is what made the dream remarkably great. Every single person was filled with blissful joy as we ecstatically ran around like little children without a single worry, care, or concern in the world! People were leaping over equipment while others were jumping on enormous trampolines. Some were playing tag, while others were racing each other. Some people were climbing on huge rubbery, spongy equipment, while others talked and engaged in conversation. I was caught up in a swirl of cartwheels, summersaults, skipping, imitating, and laughing. In that moment I felt like the happiest kid in the world who had the greatest friends ever.

When I woke up from the dream I just laid there with a big grin on my face. It changed me. Every care in that moment was obsolete and I knew the Lord wanted to speak to me. I believe this year is going to be marked with delightful play and vitality, like children playing with their father. I believe the Lord wants to shift and release us from the weight of worldly cares to a Kingdom culture of eternal joy! Its is our nature to worry about non-eternal things, but its in His nature to remove those things for a heart that screams FREEDOM! It's the divine exchange! Our heart for His...

...because this life was meant to be a gift.

By Brandon Jackel