Its About the Getting

Things on Faith, God, Religion, etc... not forged into a devotional format.
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777arkv
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Its About the Getting

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This is the devotional side to Midnight Miracles.

Its story segment is located HERE.
The song itself is located on YouTube, SoundCloud and FaceBook.

Its About the Getting

I cannot read music.

While I have been fascinated by the piano since I was a child, (much to the suffering of any adult within earshot of my curious tinkering), I have never officially learned to play the piano or read music.

At some point I heard Howard Blakes piano score in the TV Special adaptation for Raymond Briggs childrens story, “The Snowman.” The whole story is told by the piano, as the images move on screen.

I was inspired… a piano can tell a story.
So I came up with my own story, and had a piano tell it for me. – “Midnight Miracles”

Now, understand… I am not boasting.

As Screwtape pointed out to Wormwood in his 14th letter, “[The truth is that humans] did not create themselves, that their talents were given them, and that they might as well be proud of the color of their hair.” - CS Lewis – “The Screwtape Letters”

You see? All my talents are something given to me by God. Imagine a child given a coin by their father. So then that child went on to the other children to boast of their grand coin. As if they worked to earn it. Or even as if they had made the coin itself.

Silly really.

No. My point is… that it is a gift. What better time to reflect on gifts than Christmas? Now I know the popular thing to say is, “It’s not the getting, it’s the giving.”, and I completely disagree. I think on Christmas our focus should most definitely be on the getting part. It’s not that we think of it too much, it’s that we don’t think of it nearly enough.

We may think, “I get this.”, and then stop. – That is the problem. We need to keep focusing on the getting, until we push through that initial glee at getting it, and ask, “Why?”…did I get this? Then we may realize that it was a gift. Something someone else gave to us for free. Something that had very little to do with us, and more to do with someone wanting to give us something.

You see? By not focusing on the getting, we then sidestep the thankfulness at the getting. You completely miss the humility at holding something in your hands that was given to you for free.

So this year, focus on the getting. Who cares about the giving? That’s all up to you. You control that, so it’s not impressive. However, everything you get? That is up to the free will of another. Something you cannot, and never will control. That is something magnificent.

Then, may that bring your focus and attention back around to the getting we should always be humbled most by. Christ-mas is all about what we got in its first ever gift given, when Jesus, the Christ was born.
© 2015-2018 Mark Vicari - All Rights Reserved
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