What if it is all gift?
I love gifts. I love giving them and I love receiving them. ‘Gifts’ are one of my top 'love languages'. Unnecessary, they are given in love to bring delight, to show favour. They are usually above and beyond what we need or deserve, given 'just because'.
Just recently I have been thinking about the idea that God chose to create, not because He had to, but because He wanted to. He made a beautiful world, affirming its goodness over and over again. Then He made us, and gave it to us to live in, to enjoy with Him. While I do not want to overlook the pain and brokenness that entered our human existence through our collective turning from God, I think that, this side of the cross, we are perhaps in an even better position to understand our lives as gift.
The story began as gift and ends as gift, John tells us that "Out of His fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given” (John 1:16). God chose to create, He chose to call Abraham, He chose rescue Israel, He chose to send Jesus. And He chooses to work in us, inviting us into fullness of life (John 10:10). What if we lived into this? What if our lives were a place where we received "Every good and perfect gift [as] from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17)
Sometimes there will be a painful tension here, I realise that. The brokenness of life 'under the sun’ (a la Ecclesiastes) is real, so real, in fact, that God dealt with it fully and finally in Jesus. He knows and deeply feels our hurts, showing us by giving us Himself.
The problem of pain aside (while still wanting to acknowledge its weight), receiving a gift well actually forces our focus to shift. It involves humility, gratitude and it usually results in joy. Hands out, we open ourselves to the giver. Thanks on our lips; we slow down, stilling ourselves to appreciate the moment. Delight bubbles up, not just in the gift, lovely as it maybe, but in the way it points us to the one who has given it. In recognition of their kindness toward us, their care for us.
If we received our times and our days like this, if I received my times and my days like this, I think, perhaps I might be on the right track. Because He is my Father and He does indeed give good gifts (Matthew 7:11). I think that there is a lightness to be found here, a joy God is calling us into. Grace upon grace, gift upon gift. Like a child eager for Christmas morning or their birthday, I want to try and live in anticipation of His readiness to gift - I do love presents, after all! What if our everyday-walking-around-lives were shaped by the joy of Love demonstrated in gifts given and received? Jess has moved from Sydney to Vancouver to study at Regent Bible College. She gets excited about sharing all things good, true and beautiful - especially as they pertain to textiles, food and the God who made them. She blogs on Fullness
