When we express God's love to others, it's the gift that comes to life all new each Day.

​Today Goff talks about this idea of storing things up, and how when we store them up, especially when we store up love, it can go bad.

He made this statement that love is only real love if it's expressed. That got me thinking - Goff has a way of doing that.

I took the boys to get pizza last night. While we were driving there, they started talking about Christmas. It's getting so close, they said. Of course their excitement around Christmas is the gifts. They are still boys after all.

I messed with them a bit. Asked what on earth they could be so excited about. Elliott finally came through with he wanted a new phone. Ian's mouth was drooling in the background at the mention of gifts and electronics. Elliott didn't say it, neither did Ian, but I could see they were both in love with the idea of new things.

But I've been here before. I know how that plays out. It plays out the same every time. They fall in love with the idea of a gift. They get it. Use it a bit. Then the love fades. And according to Goff, that makes perfect sense. Because it's only real love if it's love that can be expressed in the lives of others.

(Elliott might argue he'd use the new phone to text me "I love you dad" messages. Nice try.)

I can be the same with my own excitement about Christmas.

My excitement is centered on the arrival of a baby in a manger. A gift of love for a guy who really doesn't deserve it. As Christmas draws near, the anticipation grows, my heart gets full, the music often moves me to tears, the Christmas lights beam a brilliant measure of hope in a life and a world that can be dark.

I can feel overwhelmed by the love.

Then, the day after Christmas comes. And the day after that. And to be truthful, that love fades. Maybe because I'm not always good at taking the gift I'd been waiting on and expressing it in the lives of the people around me.

Jesus didn't come in a manger and die on a cross to be a gift that gets set on a shelf or forgotten after we've opened him. Not after Christmas. Not after church on Sunday. Not after reading Bob Goff in the morning. In fact, when we express his love to others, it truly is the gift that can come to life all new each and every day.

In us and in others.