Chapter 1: You Did This for Me?- UNFINISHED

If you haven't gathered by today's title, I am finally starting up another series of entries based on a book! I needed to not add to my busy schedule last week, but now things are calming back down to a normal pace, and I've found that having something to focus my entries on helps me out a lot.

I still plan on finishing up the TFAES entries, but they'll have to wait a little while.

So, here we go. Max Lucado's He Chose the Nails.

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I've gotta be honest upfront; I've already read the first three or four chapters. BUT I've reread the first one today, and promise not to get ahead anymore. But I really enjoy Lucado's writing style. Warren (PDL) was more like teacher/student without being overly academic, while Lucado writes more like a good friend who has great information to share.

Anyway.

This first chapter is a basic introduction. It opens with this.

So so awesome. And I'm pretty sure I just read that passage recently (within the past week or so).

He talks about the crazy things that we go through when trying to get the perfect gift for a loved one. And how we do it again and again, each year, as those special days come up (anniversaries, birthdays, Christmas, etc.). He makes such a poignant point about how much God has given us. "We could exist on far less. He could have left the world flat and gray; we wouldn't have known the difference." Can you imagine a world without colors? Without sunsets? Without the wide variety of plant and animal life? Without MUSIC??? The wind in the trees, the babbling rivers, Bach, Brahms, and the Schenkerian inevitability of ii->V->I! God is SOOO good!

And, "[i]f we give gifts to show our love, how much more would He? If we- speckled with foibles and greed- love to give gifts, how much more does God, pure and perfect God, enjoy giving gifts to us?" I think everyone here knows how good it feels to give a gift, and if you've been lucky enough to give a simple gift that is appreciated in a way you never thought you would touch someone. . . well, anyway, I think that is the closest we can get to beginning to understand what God must feel. How awesome is He!! This book is all about the various gifts we were given through Christ's journey to the cross, not just his physical death (because after all, that was all that was necessary; He gave us so much more than that). Should be a very interesting journey :)

Last thing: one of my favorite songs ever, and it just came on the radio (and totally how I feel after thinking about this chapter). Don't know if I've posted it before, but if you aren't familiar with it, please take 4 minutes and listen: