The other day, I was driving along in traffic heading to pick up my granddaughter Elizabeth from school.  Traffic was not too heavy, but the traffic lights were not cooperating.  I was running a little later than I’d planned, so the urgency to get there made me a little impatient.  I was on a mission to get the little one to a play date with our next door neighbor‘s children.

My impatience grew as I encounter red light after red light.  Of course, the many driving errors I encountered helped to build on my self-centered interest in getting there quickly.  As a retired driving instructor, I also noticed every other driver’s errors.  This added to my growing frustration.  Other drivers became obstacles to my mission, and my attitude towards them was not kind.

I arrived at the school finally and picked up Elizabeth.  I fastened her in, and we were ready to head for home.  I reached the main road and we were rolling, but unfortunately not at the speed I anticipated.  On a road where the speed limit is 55 mph, and most often everybody is traveling at 60 to 65 mph, a utility truck ahead of a long line of traffic was traveling at 45 miles per hour. This felt like insult to injury.

It finally dawned on me that perhaps God was trying to get my attention.  My attitude was bad.  I was not where God would want one of his children.  I began to ask God for forgiveness, and apologize for the unkind place in which I was operating.  That’s when I was reminded that Jesus died for my sins.  Jesus died because I can’t keep it together.  I was overwhelmed to tears.

God took the opportunity of my bad attitude to give me a deeper understanding of why Jesus died.  I was washed anew with the realization that I cannot live without his amazing grace.  The truth is that every moment of every day I need what Jesus did for me.

When I think of the amazing, miraculous event that Christmas signifies, I am filled with awe and wonder.  For all the people who have ever walked the earth, God has made a way for us to enjoy eternal life with him.  He has loved us enough to die for us so that this could happen.  Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will to men.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to receive God’s wonderful gift of eternal life.  All other gifts pale in comparison.