The Expected Gift

Hope you all out there in the blogosphere had a wonderful Christmas day and weekend.  We got to spend it with two of our daughters live plus one via Skype (ah the wonders of technology – we put the video cam up and it was almost like she was with us) and our son-in-law.  I have noticed as we get older, the wonder and importance of actual gift giving is less in importance.  In fact, our kids tell each other what they want (not so unusual), but then tell each other what they got the other (very unusual).  Strange if you ask me. 

I have wondered what the scene was at the first Christmas as the long awaited Messiah was born.  Israel had been in darkness for over 400 years – the 400 silent years eagerly anticipating the Messiah, the “expected one”.  At the birth of Jesus, a heavenly throng appeared to shepherds praising God (Luke 2:14).  Yet Jesus was born into relative obscurity.  Yes, even the historians don’t give much lip service to King Herod’s view of the kingly threat.  The slaughter of a few infants and babies in a small town of Bethlehem hardly draws any attention.  Jesus was expected, but not expected.  People had their own notion of what the Messiah can or should be.  Who is this Christ?  More importantly – who is He to me?  The Light shone in the darkness, but the darkness did not comprehend it (John 1:5).  Pat Morley says “there is a God we want and there is a God who is and they are not usually the same God”. 

The obscurity of Jesus eventually transferred to the hostility towards Jesus. You see now expectations were high for a certain type of Messiah and Jesus did not fill the bill.  The Roman conquering, nation building Jesus was not on the radar.  Jesus did not even come close to that perception – in fact, he preached obedience toward government.  Ignorance transferred into outright hostility.  No one wants to admit that the issue is with me, myself, and I.  I need a gift and the gift I need is a paid debt.  It is hard to get your head around a gift that is a paid debt.  Totally unexpected I think.  It doesn’t make for a very nice gift.  I can imagine someone putting a mortgage under the tree with the stamp on it “PAID”. Would I look at it as a gift?  Kind of like receiving warm clothes when you are a kid.  You know you need them, but it doesn’t meet the pleasure factor.  Not expected, not valued. 

I think I would look at it any differently if someone gave me the money and then I paid back the debt?  I probably would because I would somehow rationalize it that I earned that money to pay off the debt.  God sees our sin debt as insurmountable, something that simply cannot be paid off.  He also sees us as incredibly valuable something deserving of the highest value He can give.  Those two are mutually exclusive but God makes it possible.  A gift of incomparable value to pay off an insurmountable debt.  Not a bad gift after all.

A very blessed belated Christmas to you all!

The Rejected Gift

Continuing on this gift theme for the holidays - a gift is not a gift unless it is accepted. We learned last few weeks that a gift is eagerly anticipated and a gift must be valued. Why would a gift not be accepted?

A friend of ours related a story of the "you've been gifted" cards. As many in this area know, we have these cards that our church uses to blanket the area with 10,000 seemingly random acts of generosity. The stories are incredible. So our friend was at a gas station and he happened to have a free tank of gas to give away. He purposes in his heart to give that tank of gas to the next person he saw filling up his/her tank. A woman pulled up (in a mini-van no less) and he approached her and offered to pay for her gas. She gave a curt reply of "NO".  Our friend reiterated to her that there are no strings attached, it was totally free.  This went on for three or four times with no explanation as to why she was turning down this gift. He finally gave up. 

A gift cannot be a gift unless it is accepted. People sometimes grudgingly accept gifts, but deep down they may resent the giver. I remember my parents and in-laws as very generous people whom were always giving us things particularly when we were first married. I accepted the gifts but in some weird way I harbored bitterness. There were no strings, no expectation of return. Just pure and simple gift because they loved us. Our sinful nature wants no part of that which is freely given. Second, gifts are hard because in the flesh, we want to earn something. Maybe the woman at the gas station felt that way. Why is this guy gifting me gas - I can afford to pay for it myself?

God's gift of indescribable value is rejected by many because it is not earned and therefore is hard to accept. God paid an incredible price for it and to reject it is the ultimate slap in the face. Our friend was hurt that the woman rejected his gift, but it didn't cost him anything.  Our rejection of God's gift grieves him. What is God's gift?  It is His only Son, Jesus Christ judged and abandoned at the cross. It fully paid for a debt we could not pay - the price of our sins. 

This Christmas, will you reject a gift that is so costly yet so freely given?  I pray you will accept this gift from God with a fully appreciative heart. 

Packers Stock

I have this hot stock for $250 a share.  Just a few small catches.   It pays no dividends, will not go up in price and even if it did, was not transferable.  Oh and it has no resale vaue anyway.  You would think that I would have a hard time getting takers for this stock. Yet the Green Bay Packers sold 1600 orders in the first 11 minutes. The President and CEO made no bones about the intent. 

"I encourage you to buy shares of stock in the Packers. We need your help. As an owner, you will be invited to shareholder meetings and have voting privileges. Ownership will also provide you with significant bragging rights. You will become an owner of the defending world champions, a team that has won more world championships than any other team in the NFL."

So the shares were sold with the sole value of bragging rights. I don't know about you, but $250 is an awful lot of money for bragging rights. Now I love the Packers. I adopted them as my second favorite team (to the woeful Browns) when I worked for a Milwaukee company. But I am not spending $250 per share for bragging rights.  

Isn't it strange how gifts of unlimited value given freely are turned down, but given a chance to spend on worthless, we will pay any price. God has given us a truly remarkable gift with far more "bragging rights" than any Packers stock. It cost us nothing, but cost Him everything. Further, our identification is with a team that has already won the Super Bowl. The game of life has already been won, the time has just not ended yet. The bookies would have a field day knowing the outcome is decided, but the game is still at hand. Don't want to go crazy on this analogy - you get my drift. 

On this Christmas season, will you buy what is worthless and ignore a gift that is priceless?

Eagerly Awaiting Special Gifts

In the morning, O Lord you hear my voice.  In the morning, I order my prayer to you and eagerly watch.  Psalm 5:3

This is one of my favorite pictures.  It is a picture of our oldest daughter at age 5 who was asleep at the top of the stairs while eagerly awaiting the start of Christmas morning.  Note the clock sitting next to her at the top of the stairs.  When we were young, the anticipation of opening gifts on Christmas morning was overwhelming.  Our kids were never taught about Santa Claus.  The meaning of Christmas was to celebrate the birth of our Savior who gives the greatest gift of all.  Nevertheless, it would be wrong for me to say that they didn’t make a special deal out of all of the opening of the gifts and our kids were no different in that heightened anticipation.  I am sure along the way, our kids may have been disappointed in some of their gifts, they sure didn’t let on. 

So why is it that we don’t look at a heavenly Father who loves to lavish gifts on His children in the same way?  We think of God as a cosmic killjoy who wants to disappoint us.  Sometimes we want to use reverse psychology on God and say “Well God really didn’t want me to have this” and secretly hope we get it anyway.  God says He will give us the “desires of our heart” (Psalm 37:4).  I am sure not all gifts requested by my children were received.  For example, a pony would probably be out of bounds.  We know other gifts may not be completely right for our children.  We never gave our kids video games because rightly or wrongly we didn’t think it was something they should have (I am not bemoaning other parents who give video games).  God has perfect knowledge of what is right or wrong for us.

Can we trust a heavenly Father who gave his only Son as a perfect gift to smother us with love and gifts?  Can we wait in eager anticipation as to what He is going to do?  As I get older, I find myself eagerly awaiting what God is going to do in my life.  That “He who began a good work in me will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).