Ezra is a spitter like his daddy before him. He eats and he’s happy, he spits up and he’s still happy. His mama tries everything to prevent it. She burps him, props him, holds him upright, lets him lie down and still he spits up. He will grow out of it soon but not soon enough. He soaks through bibs faster than she can keep up so I keep a stack in the drawer just for him.
I remember when it was his daddy. He was my third child but my first spitter. I thought something was seriously wrong. This was so different from his siblings but I’ve learned that some kids are just spitters. Their pop off valve works overtime. They strain their little bellies trying to move, to sit, to creep and crawl and out comes more spit up. “Don’t bounce him,” we say, “he just ate,” but it doesn’t really matter. It’s coming either way.
I’m reminded of Jesus’s message through John to the church, as much a message for us today as for the first century believers, and extremely relevant in this Christmas season when materialism seems to peak.
““I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold.
I wish that you were one or the other!
But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!”
Revelation 3:15-16 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rev.3.15-16.NLT
The smell of Ezra’s sweet baby spit lingers on my clothes long after I’ve held him, but when other translations use harsher words for spit like spew or vomit, I flashback to a different age of child rearing entirely, one where I needed to wake daddy to assist with the clean up so I wouldn’t be sick myself. This kind of sick tends to spread like wildfire. Our sin-sickness, our apathy, our indifference, our hurried up observances on Sundays but especially at Christmas, and our joylessness are also contagious. How much better to recognize the Lord, our Salvation, as our Strength and our Song so that when we overflow onto those around us, and we surely do on a daily basis, the fragrance that lingers is Christ. Regardless of how it’s perceived by the world, it is a pleasing aroma to God, our Heavenly Father.
“God always makes his grace visible in Christ, who includes us as partners of his endless triumph.
Through our yielded lives he spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere we go.
We have become the unmistakable aroma of the victory of the Anointed One to God —a perfume of life to those being saved and the odor of death to those who are perishing.
The unbelievers smell a deadly stench that leads to death, but believers smell the life-giving aroma that leads to abundant life.
And who of us can rise to this challenge?
For unlike so many, we are not peddlers of God’s Word who water down the message.
We are those sent from God with pure motives, who speak in the sight of God from our union with Christ.”
2 Corinthians 2:14-17 TPT
https://bible.com/bible/1849/2co.2.14-17.TPT
Beware anything and everything that causes you to take your eyes off Jesus, even for a moment. Stress and strain distracts but so does busy and in demand. One drains us while one feeds our egos. Both require caution. Trying to shoulder life’s responsibilities alone while relying on our own understanding can lead to bitterness with others or helpless despondency. Basking in the limelight, whether as the life of the party or the hostess with the mostest, leads to pride and both lead away from God. We must have a healthy view of ourselves. The world points us inward and outward, everywhere but heavenward. Where we fix our thoughts and our eyes truly matters.
“Whenever we are off our watch, we lose ground.” -Matthew Henry commentary on Revelation
“Because you say, “I am rich, and have prospered and grown wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked [without hope and in great need], [Hos 12:8]”
Revelation 3:17 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/rev.3.17.AMP
Instead of worrying about carefully crafting a character to represent our desire to give good gifts to our family, our children, our friends and neighbors, Christians need to represent God, the Giver of every good and perfect gift in every season, especially the one set aside for celebrating the birth of His one and only Son, Immanuel, God with us. (James 1:17, Matthew 1:23) The very best Gift we will ever receive is also the one size fits all, most priceless Gift we could ever offer. Jesus never changes, He never goes out of style, and no matter how you try, you cannot out give Him. He truly is the Gift that keeps on giving, and not just through the year, but throughout your entire life, to a thousand generations, and into eternity.
“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].”
James 1:17 AMP
https://bible.com/bible/1588/jas.1.17.AMP
“If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.
But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.
And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?
Is anything worth more than your soul?”
Mark 8:35-37 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mrk.8.37.NLT
By Easter we’ll all be talking of spring cleaning and downsizing, so this Christmas, rather than spending more of our limited time and resources on things we cannot keep, may we set our hearts on the Giver of the most precious Gift and from a heart of sincere devotion and gratitude, let’s give freely, even as we have received. (Matthew 10:8)
A Fitting Reply 