Wow.....

Our pastor shared a great story yesterday.

There was young woman who had three sons -- her husband died unexpectedly and she was left to try and raise them herself. She worked as a nurse with varied shifts. It got pretty tough but the Lord helped her and she provided for her family of growing boys. A few years later she met a fabulous Christian man who asked her to marry him. The boys resented this man despite all of his efforts to become a dad to these boys. They worked hard at every opportunity to cause dissension, make trouble, and reject him.

At Christmas things got especially hard because the boys longed so deeply for their father to be returned to them and it seemed nothing the man could do was good enough. The man was desperate to build a relationship with them. One brisk morning, the man loaded up the boys and took them to the mountains to find a Christmas tree and surprise their mom when she came home from work. As they drove out, they begin to enjoy the day together. They hiked through the woods, telling stories, joking, and drinking hot chocolate. After a few hours of looking, the boys told the man that they had found a perfect tree. They worked together taking turns with the saw and ax to fell the tree and they carried it together back to the truck. The day was turning out beyond all expectations.

Unfortunately, as sometimes they often do, the tree seemed to grow from when they felled it to when they got it home. When they brought it into the living room the tree was so full it filled the room and could not be set up straight. Several feet of the tree laid bent over against the ceiling. The boys were so disappointed -- what do they do???

Very determinedly and quietly the man gathered his tools and went upstairs. He knelt with his saw and cut a hole through the floor of the boys upstairs bedroom to the living room below. That year they had Christmas upstairs and downstairs. The boys loved it and it was a monumental point in their relationship with this man whom they now could see as a father to them.

Two thousand years ago our Heavenly Father did something very similar.......... he loved us SO much he "cut a hole" in the floor of heaven and offered us His love, His Fatherhood, His Son........ What a precious gift!!!!