Gifts

     The things God asks us to do sometimes are difficult and even painful, but the rewards are great.  Pleasing Him is enough, but when He gives a gift for a sacrifice or decision we make it touches us in a way beyond description.  Tonight God gave me a chapter from a book I didn't even know existed.  I came across it by accident, if you believe in accidents.  The chapter is called "You matter to God"  from a book named "Welcome Home ... to the God who loves you" written by Dave Browning.  The words were exactly what I needed to hear at that moment.  I can't post the whole chapter, but I will share a poem Dave shared at the end of it.

 O long and dark the stairs I trod
With trembling feet to find my God
Gaining a  foothold bit by bit,
Then slipping back and losing it.
Never progressing, striving still
With weakening grasp and faltering will,
Bleeding to climb to God, while he
Serenely smiled, unnoting me.
Then came a certain time when I
Loosening my hold and fell thereby;
Down to the lowest step my fall,
As if I had not climbed at all.
Now when I lay despairing there,
Listen...a footfall on the stair,
On that same stair where I afraid,
Faltered and fell and lay dismayed.
And lo, when hope had ceased to be,
My God came down the stairs to me.
                                            Anonymous