Advent ~Five~

I have a sweet friend who has walked a similar path with her father as I am walking with mine. Her father is now gone, but the graces that were deposited into her heart as she cared for her father…she now deposits into mine.  Always when I need it most, whether in person, over the phone or a random text or message…her wisdom and encouragement splash over my life from her overflow.

In today’s reading, God promised Abram He would bless him when he left everything familiar and journeyed to an unknown destination.  Even before Abram had taken a step…God declared this blessing over him:
“I will make you into a great nation.  I will bless you….and you will be a blessing to others.  I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.  All the families on the earth will be blessed through you.”
After being blessed by God, Abram would in turn be a blessing to others. 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 says it this way…”He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, He brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us”

Wrapping her words with a shiny bow, Ann Voskamp writes this …”You will be experienced as a blessing–to the extent you have first experienced yourself as blessed.  You must feel the fullness of your own pitcher before you trust the pouring out of yourself.
Only when you first unwrap the gifts of blessings to you can you be wrapped up as a gift of blessing to others.”

I pray for all of us today, as we experience the hardships of this life, and heal from the consequent sufferings, that we embrace the blessings that escorted us through and find ourselves to be “splash-ers of blessing.”