The Perfect and The Only Gift
As nature strives for perfection, even so must we.
What present can be acceptable to God?
Our Heavenly Father, God, is omnipotent and omnipresent, so the scripture asks "What is man that thou art mindful of him?
We call him Holy Father, for to me a believer He is my Father, just as Christ taught his disciples to pray "Our Father which art in heaven...."
As my Father, I know I am his child, though I too am a son of man, a son also of an earthly dad.
Yet, my dad and I will both be judged by our same Heavenly Father.
Thankful as I am for Christ's atonement in becoming one with me, I am told to become one with Him.
To do so, I must give our Heavenly Father a gift in the same way that Christ gave our Father His gift.
I must come before His throne with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, and give the greatest love possible, for Christ has taught me "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."
The greatest commandment Christ gave me is to love Father with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind. By keeping this commandment and laying down my life for Christ who wants to call me His friend, I am doing what Christ asked me to do when He asked me to be even as He is, does, did, and would do: surrender the one thing I can give back to Heavenly Father as a worthy gift, a gift He gave me, namely my free agency (to do good or evil, to act righteously or unrighteously, to keep or not keep the commandments He gave me through the teaching and example of His Son) not grudgingly, not holding anything back like crossing one's fingers behind one's back, but openly, fully, and without reservation.
Heavenly Father's gifts were freely given to me for my righteous asking, if they were for my eternal good. God has need only for the greatest gift any dutiful son can give, to his dad and his Father: obedience, and because Heavenly Father gives only good gifts to His children, I must give only a good and acceptable gift to Him: all of my heart, all of my soul, and all of my mind, in love
I can do that by emulating Christ and loving others with the compassion and empathy of my whole heart, by reaching deep inside and giving others the true love of my soul, and by devoting my thinking to what is best for another, even at the sacrifice of myself.
Those gifts are what Christ gave to our Father. Those are the gifts I know my Heavenly Father is able to accept, even from me.
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