City Life Church
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read

It was December 1993 and all month the three Holland kids wondered what the soft but large packages were under the Christmas tree. It was a mystery: what could be soft like a pillow? Is the softness a decoy, hiding something precious and awesome inside? Nothing that I could imagine wanting would feel like that.

When Christmas came, we all opened our brand new electric blankets together.

We were puzzled. Is this all? Is it some kind of joke? Is there a $50 bill hidden inside the blanket?

None of us were particularly concerned about being cold at night. We didn’t live during the depression, and electric blankets were not some space-aged new invention that captured kids’ imaginations in the 1990’s. We certainly hadn’t put them on our Christmas lists.

No, it wasn’t a joke. But it has become the family joke for all the years since. The Electric Blanket Christmas.

What’s a gift you weren’t excited to get?

The Bible talks about spiritual gifts. You don’t get to go shopping and pick them out yourself. These gifts are to be used in community to benefit others (more than for some selfish gain). The gifts themselves tell you something about the story God is writing with your life: they are about something bigger than yourself and your small hopes and dreams.

Sometimes this means God’s presents are not the gifts you would have chosen if you had been consulted.

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    City Life Church

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    A safe place for doubts, questions, and real people. Join us at 10:00am on Sundays at 2574 21st Street (at Sol Collective, just below Broadway).