"Oh, wow!"

"Oh, wow!"

I don't think there is any higher compliment, and better response, to a gift. It is the 10.0 score in gift-giving. It encapsulates, "It's perfect," with, "It is more than I hoped for, or at least dared to dream."

It is not possible to get such a reaction often. If we raise the level of expectation by consistently giving on this level, the ingredients of "Oh wow" become lost. We are quite capable of becoming spoiled.

But, if we are attentive, there are opportunities where desire and resources and imagination intersect. If we seize upon them, they become the Christmas, or birthday, or whatever, that is remembered for years to come.

God, of course, is an "Oh wow" giver. Look out your window. Consider the birds of the air, the grass of the field. The trees and the clouds and the sun and the rain. Our familiarity often dulls our sense of wonder, but if will look anew, the wonder is still there.

Consider His word. In our hand you hold His revelation for the ages.

Consider His deliverers; Moses, Joshua, the judges, Samuel, Saul, David and others. The ultimate deliverer, of course, being Christ.

400 years of virtual silence. Then, in a manger one night, "Oh wow." The miracle of birth, which is always an "Oh wow" in and of itself, but even more so in this case.

Immanuel--God with us. Just what we needed and so much more than what we expected.

Thank You, Father.