Five years ago, I had just been reunited with my birth mother, Marcy prior to Christmas.  It was the first year we celebrated Christmas and exchanged gifts knowing one another. One of the gifts she gave were 3 precious ornaments each with a part of the Christmas story written and illustrated on them, topped with satin bows.  I had never seen ornaments like these before.  I treasured them so much as they were opened and hung on the tree.  Every time I walked by our tree I marveled in wonder about how big and awesome of a God I have! Here I was standing looking at God’s beautiful word, on a gift from someone I never knew I would even meet!  I hold the words of Scripture so dear to my heart, so each time I see them I stop and relish the words written on them declaring the story of the greatest gift ever! Jesus! Feelings of sweet blessings filled my heart.

I treasure these gifts because they remind me of how much bigger a picture there is than just what I see!  Each year I pack these ornaments up so carefully and each Christmas as I unpacked them to put them on our Christmas tree they remind me of the power of God and his incredible sweetness and tenderness.  So this year I excitedly hung them on the tree with my little girls.  Stopping as I walk by the tree and reading the Scriptures and enjoying the beautiful art work on them, my heart pondering all God has done in my life. The miracle of Jesus! Redemption and Love!

Fast forward to Friday night:

Friday night I found myself, all by myself.  Which rarely happens!!! Everyone in my family had an activity of some kind they were involved in so I decided to go to the mall and browse for Christmas gifts. I have learned asking Jesus to go with me and talk with me wherever I go is truly the best, so I asked Jesus to go with me, guide me to where he wanted me to go that night. And wow did he have a treat in store!

I found myself in Dillards by the Christmas decorations and some ladies working at the store mentioned “let’s move the Scripture ornmaments over here.”  This statement caught my attention so I thought I would look at these mentioned ornaments.  As I walked closer my heart just lept with excitement!  It was THOSE ornaments!!!! I had never seen them in a store before.  I was just enamored with each one of them, depicting the precious story of Jesus.  They were each so beautiful.  As I gazed at them, I mentioned to the ladies how excited I was to see these ornaments.  They then told me the artist who created them would be in the store the next day!  I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t realize they were painted by an artist! I called Marcy so excited telling her about my evening. This moment excited me so much, sheer delight came over my heart!

The next day Marcy, my little girls and son went to the mall and I thought I would have my little girls choose an ornament they liked and add it to our collection.  They looked at all the ornaments and chose the most precious ornament. It is brilliantly gold with Mary holding baby Jesus on it. Babies are such precious gifts, delicate fresh breath of new life and new beginning. My life, as all of ours, carefully knit by the hand of God are full of adventure, ups and downs highs and lows.  This ornament portraying a glimpse of the love of Mary over her baby. Jesus: so much this little beginning of life would bring, made my heart think of how my beginning as a baby, with a mother who loved me so much, gave me to my parents who adopted me and poured out their love and how God faithfully poured out his loving grace to all in my story. Thoughts of how each one of our lives can pour Jesus gift from one to another. Celebrating Immanuel, Jesus in each of our hearts.

All these thoughts were flooding my mind as we waited our turn to have this gifted lady Laura Johnson sign our ornament. My heart was flooding with emotion. Then I began sharing the story with her about how Marcy and I met and how she gave these treasured ornaments to our family. So many thoughts came to my mind about how special that moment was to me when I first saw those ornaments. (insert of a few tears of Joy)

It struck my heart how this wonderful lady was gifted with a creative talent and was using it to share the story of Jesus.  Her talent has blessed my heart and home for the last 5 years.  It just brought to life how each one of us can share the love of Jesus with each other knowingly, as I was given the gift by Marcy, and unknowningly by this precious artist; her talent was filling my heart and Marcy’s hearts with joy. It amazes my heart how God connected us in this moment.  People who never knew they would meet or what impact we all have on each other. All because of Jesus. Beautiful moments orchestrated by God. And in Jesus’ way, pouring out gifts, Marcy gifted us this precious new ornament!

 

May we each be encouraged to pour our gifting and talents we have to others following Jesus example as he came to us, to this whole world bringing the beautiful gift of eternal life to all who believe in Him. My hope and prayer is we receive the eternal gifts Jesus desires to fill our hearts with.  We are all having impact on one another everyday, near or far, known and unknown. Jesus love is farther reaching than we can ever comprehend!  Receive and be filled with the love of Christ and share the love of Christ!

Chloe, Karysn, Marcy, Priscilla & Laura

Joy in my heart,

Priscilla

These beautiful ornaments can be found at Coton Colors by Laura Johnson! Check out her company’s sweet story 🙂