I
love this season of giving! Giving
gifts is one of my favorite indulgences and the presentation is often just as
important as the gift itself.
Today,
as I photographed our Christmas tree with all the beautifully wrapped presents
under it, I began to ponder these gifts.
How, on Christmas morning we will rip all this beautiful paper, crumple
it and toss it aside. We all
understand that the real gift is what’s inside the wrapping, right?
As
a child I was different – I wanted to gaze upon the presents for as long as
possible; speculating about what was inside but afraid to open them because I
may be disappointed – and then I wouldn’t even have the beautiful exterior of
the gift.
Recently,
I realized there’s a lesson in this; a lesson I’m learning about receiving
gifts from my heavenly Father. It
takes courage to truly receive a gift; I must be willing to accept it as the
giver intends it; and yes, I can appreciate the initial surface beauty that
attracts me to it, but then I need to be willing to release that in order to
receive and embrace the deeper, more fulfilling gift.
And
so, I discover, that with each gift I receive from Him, there is sometimes a sense of
loss; a loss of what I wanted the gift to be; of what I wanted to
make of it. But in the end, when I
let go of the outer wrappings of my expectations, I find within, something so
beautiful and so perfect for me – often meeting needs I didn’t know I had, that
I wonder why I hesitated at all.
After all, God’s gifts to me have always been perfect; always satisfying.
Finally,
this blog about gifts wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging the perfect
gift of love God gave us when He sent His Son, Jesus to us; a gift that once
received, fills our most crucial need . . . the need for a Savior. And then we can spend the rest of our
lives unwrapping the beauty of His eternal truths.
