dailydatewithgod

There are many gifts which we do not see as gifts.  They come in wrapping that looks like garbage or something that needs to be given to good will.  If it is given to us we want to reject it because all we see is the outer covering.  There are no pink ribbons or sparkly wrapping paper.  They show up as people who irritate us or tell us what to do.  They show up as experiences that if given the option we would have skipped them all together.  That doesn’t look like fun let alone a gift!  What is God thinking?  Why in the world would anyone call engaging in this experience or interaction a gift?  In my experience unwrapping the deterring packaging of incest and obesity is that the gift is what comes from the process of looking underneath the wrapping.  Ultimately, we discover who we are, what we are capable of, and that we are the gift.  We begin to know ourselves as God does and recognize that we are not tarnished by the wrapping.  The gift we are is still inside of us.  Nothing that happens to us can ultimately transform the gift God has made us to be.  Not even the things we take on ourselves.  I know this one all too well.  I spent many years trying to hurt myself with food.  Yet no amount of pizza and cookie dough to compound the self-hatred and disgust with my body made a dent in the beautiful soul of light and life that lives within my heart.  I had to do my part and be willing to walk through the uncomfortableness of what it would be like without all that wrapping.  I had to want to find a gift in the mess. God was the whispered heart beat that kept me inching in that direction so that one day I would have the courage to open up.  The reason I go on my daily dates with God is it is easy for my mind to pull me back into thinking I am the wrapping.  God leads me back to my heart every time, no questions asked, enabling me to see the gift of love and light alive and well within me.