Today is all about tagging you in our joy-filled holiday. But, let’s be clear. The term “tag” has changed over the five decades of my life, and I want to be sure we are all on the same page.
For example, my earliest connection to “tag” was a playground game as a child. If you tagged someone, that meant you touched them in a game of chase, rendering them “it”. Then much later in my life in college, my anatomy professor “tagged” body parts on the anatomy lab cadavers for our tests and exams. Relax, no human anatomy exams (or actual cadavers) included today. More recently, we’ve gotten accustomed to “tagging” our friends and family in social media posts.
We’re not referring to any of those kinds of “tags” this time. No, we’re talking about gift tags. Like the kind you include on a wrapped package to indicate to whom (and from whom) the gift was intended. So, we’d like to tell you about a holiday gift that sat untouched and (almost) forgotten in our basement for four years.
We are tagging this post, “To our readers, with love from the thankful bee”.
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I signed the last gift tag, secured it to the wrapped box and placed the package under the tree. That gift was especially meaningful. Not because of the contents or the cost or the uniqueness. That gift was special because we had bought it four years prior for a boy or girl we had yet to meet. The toy sat in our basement for four Decembers. Never wrapped. Never opened. But this December was different. This Christmas Eve night that gift sat under our tree, wrapped in Santa paper and ready for the next morning. A fulfilled promise with a red and green bow.
the front said “Joy”
The front of the gift tag said “Joy”, and that’s what I was learning to hold on to despite our circumstances in that moment. You see, the last few months of 2018 had hit our family especially hard. We faced unforeseen obstacles to Luke’s adoption finalization, and fear came calling. Allan was unceremoniously laid off from his job of twenty-five years without warning, and fear came calling. Shortly afterward my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and guess what? Fear was still knocking loudly at my door.
Our roller coaster since September had beaten me down, but I was clinging onto Christmas. Oh, not the decorations or the wrapping or the cookies (although I do LOVE the holiday cookies). I was clinging onto the Christmas baby. You know the One. Little guy wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Because of the promises of that baby, I knew that my fear had to stay outside on the porch, and I could still find joy in small things every day. That’s what Christmas promises. Hope for a hurting world.
the back said “Luke”
The back of the JOY gift tag read, “To Luke, from Mommy and Daddy”. Life is crazy. One minute we were preparing to give up our nearly five-year adoption wait, and the next minute we took a phone call about a baby boy in California. God had been working out that miracle the entire time. We just couldn’t see it.
God showed up HUGE for all of us – Luke, his birth mom Nadine, Allan and me. And God continued to look out for our family. The new year brought a new job for Allan, the right cancer doctors for my mom, and progress toward Luke’s adoption finalization in the California courts.
our gift tag for you
So, this December we are tagging YOU in our joy-filled holiday. Fear still likes to prowl around on our front porch, especially in 2020. Goodness, gracious. Can I get an “AMEN”? But we are focusing on the hope of Christmas. The light breaking through the darkness. The joy in the small things.
We hope the thankful bee has been an encouragement to you in 2020, and we’re excited about the year to come.
May you always see your blessings more clearly than your struggles. May you always have exactly what you need, if not everything you want. And may you always sense your worth. You are precious and so very loved. In fact, you are absolutely worth dying for, according to the King and Author of Creation. His perfect love drives out fear. Receive it. Embrace it. And be encouraged.
Merry Christmas, friends!
Love, Melissa
Adapted from original 12/24/2018 Facebook post.
