The Pegboard

      You never know when you are going to get that perfect Christmas gift that really captures your attention.  Maybe it doesn't take too much to capture the attention of a youngster, but I remember one Christmas when one of my gifts was a simple peg poard with a hammer and a bag of different colored pegs.  I recall getting up after the lights went out in the rest of the house.  It was around 2:00 in the morning.  I turned on my light, got my hammer and pegs and began pounding them into the pegboard.  It was all I wanted to do.  My parents didn't let it go on for too long a time.  Soon, I was back in bed, the lights out and the hammer and pegs were gone for the night.  But, I still thought about them.    Philippians 4:4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice."
      When something grabs your mind and it's all you want to do, that is the center of your life.  It could be pegboards, cars, some new tool, a new musical instrument or something else.  Just think however, how it was the first time you met the Savior.  Paul reminds the people to "Rejoice."  It's something that you just have to do because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for all of us.  You can know about Christ and still not possess the joy that Paul speaks about in this passage.  What makes the difference is that personal relationship that comes about when we receive His payment for our sins and experience the hope and peace that only He can provide.  Christ begins to occupy all of your mind and all of your desires.  It is all that you want to do.  The perfect Christmas gift will only last for a short time and when the newness wears off, it gets put away and almost forgotten.  The Perfect Gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, however, grows sweeter  and sweeter every day.  When the Apostle Paul penned those words, "Rejoice in the Lord alway..."  it reminds us that we should be praising God day in and day out, in other words, continually.  This is the One Gift that never grows old, never fades nor never gets stale.  So, I have come to the conclusion, that the Lord Jesus Christ, is indeed, much better than a new pegboard.  Praise God for the First Advent of Christ.