“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16 (NIV)

It will forever be there, right next to me. It’s a note from my younger granddaughter, Ellie.

I move it around a bit so it doesn’t get knocked off the desk area when I’m writing. But never so far away that I can’t always reach it. And it’s always in plain sight so I can read the words she wrote in pencil that day over nine years ago.

I wonder where the time has gone. And here we are at the end of another year, heading to the celebration of another Christmas season. And the journey of this year and of the life of Ellie and her older sister, leaves me wondering where the time has gone.

Anyway, I can see it now as I’m sharing with you. It’s a Plexiglass stand about six inches tall. On one side Ellie glued a pad of “Sticky Notes” for me to use as I am working and writing. And on the other side she placed a sticky note on a beautiful piece of scrapbook paper now all contained within the sleeve on one side of the Plexiglass stand—so I can easily and often read her note to me.

In pencil, in script, with love at age six she wrote—

Dear Gran,
I hope you like it. I love you.
Merry Christmas! ♡
With care.—
Ellie

And she tied it all up with a beautiful teal-colored ribbon.

She did a better job at drawing the heart at the end of the exclamation point on her original note, but my effort to recreate it above, is a comparable effort of love as was hers in decorating my “sticky-note” holder.

Ellie’s notes, as well as Hannah’s, our older granddaughter, through the years are all over the house—stuck on the sides of kitchen cabinets, among my note pads near my usual morning quiet-time area, and also stored with all the pictures they have painted on the easel in our office upstairs. Notes, pictures, paintings—always kept near to remind us of every bit of them.

All forming a scrapbook of cherished memories of loving moments forever ours to remember and hold dear.

Like the moment from over two-thousand years ago which we celebrate again in a few weeks—the birth of God’s Son, in a manger, in a stable, in Bethlehem—for you and for me.

A reminder of the love of God for you and for me—sending a note to all the world.

It’s not unlike the note of love to me from Ellie still sitting right next to me at my desk. But the note of love we will celebrate at Christmas is not only a note for me, but also for you and all the world everywhere.

A note, a reminder for the ages of His love, that went something like this—

Dear Scott (or fill in your name),
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus

A simple note of a majestic moment of love, a moment of hope, a moment of promise of life eternal to embrace and cherish now and forever and ever and ever.

Amen and Amen.

In His Name–Scott