When I was a kid, I am ashamed to say that I wasn’t a very good gift receiver. When I saw the Christmas gifts under the tree, and I would become so curious as to what was in those packages and bags! Would it be the Barbie doll I had asked for? Or what about the boots? Would I receive the book I had been eying?
My curiosity got so bad that I would often pick up the packages and shake them, and one year I couldn’t stop myself from unwrapping them. My parents weren’t home, so I carefully pulled off the tape and unfolded the paper, just enough to peek inside! And then I carefully rewrapped the packages, retaping them shut, and put them back in their exact location under the tree.
Do you want to know the most amazing part? I was never found out! When as an adult I “confessed” to my mother what I had done as a child, she couldn’t have been more surprised!
But somehow, just knowing what was under the tree didn’t bring me the sense of satisfaction that I had hoped it would. Instead, it left me feeling somehow “cheated”.
Why? After all, it was exactly the gifts I had asked for.
But when I read the coveted book, it was never as good as I had anticipated. The boots were nice, but they hurt my feet whenever I wore them, and besides, I quickly outgrew them. And the Barbie, as pretty as she was, wasn’t real.
So what was wrong? I had the most beautiful gifts. Why wasn’t I satisfied?
Friends, it is because these gifts were all one-time gifts! Even at that young of an age, before I met Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I realized that earthly gifts are only temporary. My heart yearned for something more, something that my well-meaning, loving parents could never purchase, wrap, or put under a Christmas Tree!
It was only when I met Jesus and made Him Lord and Savior of my life that I began to understand what was wrong with the gifts under the Christmas tree. When Jesus became man and came to dwell among us, He did so to give us the gift of eternal Salvation. It isn’t a one-time gift! It is a gift that lasts forever!
There is a famous children’s story that is called “The Giving Tree”. In the story, the tree gives to his special boy for its entire life. First it gives fruit. Then it gives a place to hide and play. Then, as the boy gets older, it gives its trunk for carving and its shade from the cruel sun. Then when the boy has no money, the tree gives of its wood so that the boy might sell it. And finally, the “Giving Tree” is nothing more than a stump. But it still hasn’t stopped giving. It continues to offer itself freely to his special boy, now a man, as a place to sit, as a listening ear.
It is a beautiful story, and what a beautiful description of the way Jesus gives and gives and gives. But there is just one thing wrong with this illustration: The poor tree gave of itself so much, that in the end, there was nothing left for the tree to give! But Jesus’ Christmas gift for us, the gift of Salvation, will never, ever stop giving! It just keeps on pouring down forgiveness, it just keeps on pumping out Salvation, for eternity. It is truly the “Giving Gift”! In fact, it can be said that it is the gift that just keeps on giving!
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…” (Eph 2:8, NET)
Please join us next ? for Part 3: The Gift that Keeps on Giving!
In His love,
Lyn
Lyn Chaffart, Speech-Language Pathologist, mother of two teens, Author and Moderator for The Nugget, a tri-weekly internet newsletter, and Scriptural Nuggets, a website devoted to Christian devotionals and inspirational poems, with Answers2Prayer Ministries.
(To access the entire “The Greatest Gift” mini-series, please click here.)