My Christmas Gift

From some of my previous post, you may know that Ridley and I did Christmas gifts to each other different this year. We were to take the money we allocated for each other and donate it somewhere in honor of one another. It was a secret until Christmas morning. Both of us wrapped what we came up with so we would have a surprise to open on Christmas.

So much thought went into searching and finding the perfect gift. Narrowing it down was the hard part. I went from excited, to nervous, to panicky (as I ran out of time), to peaceful, back to excited and then.....

Christmas morning came around. We lit a family candle, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and the unwrapping began. As we shared the morning with my parents, I began to pace myself on the unwrapping. At one point it felt odd that I didn't have all my usual little "love-on-you's" under the tree for Ridley. I love finding sweet surprises for him. The smiles and the gasp are priceless.
After all the gifts were unwrapped, we exchanged our gifts.

I went first. A sheet of paper was rolled up in a large plastic drinking cup with a red bow on it. At first glance, I thought Ridley's wrapping job was a last minute thing. You know....run to the kitchen, grab a cup and slap a bow on it. Then I began to read the papers. He had picked out verses about water. I read through all the verses as my heart began to race. I obviously knew water had something to do with it, but I couldn't figure out what the end result was going to be. After the verses, Ridley wrote that he knew "how much I loved my water". Ahhhhh.... the cup. There was a gift card to Living Water International. They were founded in 1990 to help provide clean water all around the world. They have completed more than 9,000 water wells and projects. Americans spend $500 billion on Christmas and just 2 percent of that would cut the world water crisis in half.

I was able to take my gift card, log onto the website and select certain projects across the globe that I could contribute to. People in the Amazons who don't name their babies until the child's first birthday because three out of five don't live that long. The elderly people in poverty stricken hospitals that can't recover because clean water is hard to find. The list goes on. In Matthew 25 when Jesus lists what's really important, water for the thirsty is at the top of the list.

Tears ran down my cheek as I thought about how perfect Ridley did in selecting something near and dear to my heart. I cried for the many people that my gift wouldn't be able to impact. I cried over my selfishness and I cried over the idea of what Jesus thought about his birthday gifts. It was a Christmas to remember for me. I have thought a lot about it off and on since December 25th. Today was one of those days as I read about the woman at the well. I have been just like that woman at the well. I have made the poor choices. I have also been redeemed and loved on by a Jesus that washes away our sin, when we ask.
Living Water.....the perfect gift.