The Ultimate Christmas Gift part 6
Category: Faithblogs
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For the last five Faithblog’s I have been looking at the ultimate Christmas gift, and we have seen how the gift is useful, costly, effective, and keeps on giving. I wanted to conclude this series by drawing together some thought’s and idea’s that can help all of us hold this gift close throughout the whole year and not just at Christmastime.
I want to begin by saying that whether we like it or not, the gift has been given. God, in his wisdom, saw fit to send his son to this world to give his life that we might know true freedom. The question is, who after being given a gift would never open it? Ask yourself, if I was given a nicely packaged gift on Christmas day would I open it or would I put it to one side to be opened at a more convenient time. Not only would that be stupid, but I’m sure it would upset the person giving the gift if you put it to one side and never opened it.
In the movie Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks (and “Wilson!”), a man survives on a tropical island for a few years after the mail plane he is on crashes into the ocean. Most of the mail, packages, and so on, are dragged to the bottom of the ocean in the plane, but he manages to save a few things. One of the packages he saves has an address label with angels wings on it, and he vows that he will deliver this package in person one day. At the end of the movie he makes good on his promise and delivers the package.
Sometime after that movie hit theaters, Tom Hanks was being interviewed. During the interview one of the movies producers gave him the very same box that had been used as the prop throughout the movie and asked him to open it. Inside was a waterproof, solar powered, satellite phone. The producer revealed that it had been an inside joke and had been in the package the whole time they were filming.
What if the main character in Cast Away had opened the package on the island when he had discovered it? For him, salvation was only a few feet away throughout the whole movie. Looking through our lens of faith, Jesus is a gift given to all, and yet the truth is, very few have ever opened the gift. The gift is only ever a prayer away, but what an amazing life waits for those who take the chance and open the gift.
Another thing to ask is, who would ever throw a good gift away? No one keeps a gift that they don’t value or consider useful. Let’s say that Tom Hanks’ character had opened the package and discovered the waterproof, solar powered, satellite phone. Do you think for one moment he would have thrown it away? Do you think he would have said, “I like my life just the way it is. I like the pain and hurt and anxiety I am feeling here, I don’t need this phone!”
Likewise, when we open the gift that is Jesus, and when we realize just who the gift is, I believe that very few of us will ever throw the gift away. After all, the gift gives us life, and who in their right mind would throw away life?
At Christmastime part of the enjoyment for me, and for millions around the world, is in the giving, but I also like to know that the gift is appreciated. No one likes to have their gift go unappreciated. God has given us an amazing gift, a gift like no other. Yet many Christian’s walk around as if they have been given the plague instead of a wondrous gift from above.
The question we need to ask ourselves this Christmas season must be, do I really value and appreciate God’s gift and receive it with joy? Do I thank God daily for the gift of His son Jesus and what He has done for me?
One person put it this way… “If there is only one prayer that ever comes from our lips, let it be thank you.”
Some other things I believe makes this a special gift is that Jesus is a gift we are to share with others. Some gifts need to be shared, and some gifts we just can’t stop talking about. Jesus is one such gift. However, we live in a selfish society, and sometimes I get the feeling that many people like to keep the gift all to themselves. But like I said, some gifts are meant to be shared. Jesus told us to go out into the world and share his message and love with the everyone and anyone that will listen.
The ultimate Christmas gift is one gift that is given with no strings attached save one, that we love God and love others. That’s it. In this life many things we are given come with clauses and strings attached – a friend of mine told me about how his father gave him the family house as a gift. He then told my friend that he could repay him over the next twenty-five years. What a gift!
When God gave the gift of his own Son, he gave the gift freely, once and for all. At the right time God gave the world a baby, a baby that would become a man, who would in time become the savior of the world. The truth is, Jesus could have come as a conquering king, destroying all who opposed him. Thank God he came instead as a servant, because who amongst us could ever hope to stand before him if he had come as a king?
Instead, he helps those in need, he lifts the fallen, he binds our wounds, and he invites us to have a full life in this life and beyond.
This season I hope we can set aside some time in our busy schedules to thank God for his gift… The gift that is useful, costly, effective, and keeps on giving and forgiving. And let us thank God by loving him and others as he has loved us.
Merry Christmas one and all!
Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
December, 2008
Picture taken from the movie The Nativity
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Good blog. It’s certainly always timely to give God thanks for all his blessings, not just for his Son sent for us on Christmas, but all the other things we take for granted. Our jobs,families, peaceful moment, our friends, this site, and our very breath.
Certainly the gift of salvation is the ultimate merciful gift, but we must remember how patient God is when we sin and act carnal and hostile to him and others. Not to mention our bread and drink we joyfully eat and drink each day, and sometimes we take it for granted, like if we make the crops to grow and the rain and rivers to water our farms.
When we go back to the beginning and see our God as creator, we just can’t stop giving thanks for all his blessing, then when he became our saviour we just are agasp we joy that we have a God that understands us perfectly how weak and fallen we are and helpless on our own strength to save ourselves. Many abundant thanks to our great God who provides and delivers and sustains us. Amen.
Francisco
Thanks Francisco for your comments. Have a great Christmas! Blessings on you and yours.