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12 hours ago
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It's Christmas wish list season, isn't it? Where we all share the gifts we'd like and learn what our loved ones are hoping for. But of course, it's also Advent, and it occurred to me that I would do well to spend a little less time obsessing over buying gifts and my wish list and a little more time mindfully contemplating the abundant gifts I already have.
Are you with me here?
His gifts are an invitation to join in his work and to enjoy our relationship with him.
First, we all know — but constantly need to be reminded — that God gives us all we need. That phrase is easy enough to glibly unleash without stopping to let it penetrate our hearts.
But as the trappings of the Christmas season swirl around us, slowing down and savoring that truth gives us time to consider the glories hidden within it — including the glorious truth that Christmas joy never needs to end. We can infuse every day with joy when we consider the abundance of gifts he offers.
It's not Christmas morning yet, but these gifts are already ours, so let's open them again now.
Life
He gave you ... YOU. He made you a unique creation, and he decided to make you before the beginning of time.
All the wonders of life — all the joys, blessings, and experiences — they're all part of the gift of life, which is given to everyone, along with the gift of the five senses with which to experience the next gift.
The world
He surely placed us on a planet brimming with blessings for us to enjoy with all our senses: sunrises and forests and waterfalls for us to see, birdsong and roaring waves and all kinds of music to hear, flowers and bread baking and clean laundry to smell, sizzling steak and juicy strawberries and tacos (tacos!) to taste, soft kittens and fuzzy slippers and cozy blankets to feel.
These gifts, this lushly furnished beautiful world, is for all of us.
Even in its present sin-stained state, our world offers breathtaking beauty every day, from a lone violet bursting through a sidewalk crack to a black velvet galaxy of stars, from a Beethoven symphony to a Rembrandt masterpiece. He must have known we would need beauty in this world, don’t you think?
Each other
He gives us relationships, starting with our placement within families.
Life was never meant to be experienced alone, and he made us with a need to belong. When we're talking about relationships with fellow Christians, we call it fellowship, and that is a very sweet gift indeed.
Work
He gives us plenty to do — starting clear back in the Garden.
Work was not a curse! God gave Adam and Eve the work of cultivating that garden before the Fall brought any curse on human endeavors. The ability to bring our skills and talents alongside him and help make his world a better place is an honor and a gift, whether those skills entail something the world deems magnificent, like building a skyscraper or leading a country — or something significantly less glamorous, like changing a diaper or digging a ditch.
It is a privilege and a gift to be allowed to create order, beauty, or service to others in this world. That we often earn our income from this activity is a gift as well, but work itself is ordained and blessed by God.
Salvation, transformation, and eternal life with him
This is one of those gift packages where a bunch of presents come stacked together.
I previously wrote about the bounty of gifts he bestows in that transformational moment when he makes us his own, including:
- Eyes to see we need repentance;
- A heart to embrace faith;
- Salvation itself as our chains drop off;
- Justification as our debt is paid and our slate wiped clean; and
- The start of a lifelong journey of sanctification as the Holy Spirit indwells us.
It’s important to reflect on these gifts because they’re every disciple’s starting point. We cannot grow as we are meant to grow from any place other than that starting point of first being transformed by his gospel and gratefully accepting those wondrous gifts.
His word
He also offers the gift of his word, the Bible.
That is a treasure we can never exhaust in this life, the greatest masterpiece ever written, direct from the creator God to his people.
Spending time each day mining those riches — reading, studying, memorizing, applying, learning — is one of the highest uses of our time. Colossians 1:10 talks about two things that “please Him in all respects”: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
There is only one path to that “increase,” and it exists entirely within the pages of his word, which he graciously provides for us.
All the things
Every attribute that we are to embody — love, hope, faith, joy, peace, wisdom, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control — as well as every individual talent and ability, these are all gifts from him.
They’re given to us so we can use them in service of his kingdom. The best gifts are the ones you can use!
Ultimately, God’s gifts to us are not just to make us happy. They are not even just so we can serve him. His gifts are an invitation to join in his work and to enjoy our relationship with him.
This is not by any means a comprehensive list of the many presents under our “Christmas tree” in this life.
Just think of what you’re thankful for, and you’ll have many more. But let’s conclude with this gift that holds so much promise. As our Father, he gives us our inheritance as his heirs (Colossians 1:12). In that verse, Paul uses language normally reserved for Jews under the old covenant (see Genesis 13:14-17 for an example) and applies it to us! Through Jesus’ work on the cross, we (all his followers) get to share in this inheritance. We get to live forever in his light, his very presence!
Chew on that for a while. I don’t think any of us can fully comprehend what it will be like to live literally in his glory. How is that not a mind-boggling gift worthy of our meditation as we journey through this world?
This article was adapted from an essay originally published on Diane Schrader's Substack, "She Speaks Truth."
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