Give The Greatest Gift!
Give The Greatest Gift - You!!
As I sit here, I am thinking … “Lord, I have nothing to give …” and He spoke to my heart, “Yes, you do – YOU!” So, I am endeavoring to do just that … to share myself with others and let me tell you it isn’t easy. It takes trust, sacrifice, honesty, peace, a willingness to be hurt, and quite frankly the guts to take risks. What is even harder … it takes being open to giving yourself in trust to someone that may betray you or perhaps may have betrayed you in the past, or someone that could hurt you or has hurt you. Jesus knew that Judas would betray him but even so … He gave His life. Daily, I believe we should strive to do the same.
He showed me Jesus’ heart … He gave himself knowing that He would be betrayed. Knowing that in His honesty, His sacrifice, His giving that He would be hurt … emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. Unlike us, He knew the beginning from the end yet He chose to give Himself freely without bitterness in forgiveness and love. It says in Isaiah 53:3 – 5, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon; and with his stripes we are healed.” He gave us everything He had. How can we give anything less than ourselves?
Have you ever played the White Elephant Game? Usually, they play it at Christmas Parties … it is where you take a gift (usually something really ugly or funny) and wrap it up in a beautiful box with gorgeous wrapping paper. Sometimes, you give away something very nice (a cd, gift certificate, candles, etc) and wrap it in the most hideous piece of paper you can find. The point of the game is to get someone to choose your gift yet when they open it up … it may or may not be what they were expecting.
In giving the Gift of You, what kind of packaging would you come in? Perhaps you are beautifully wrapped in a rich, deep warm burgundy with a gorgeous, perfectly formed bow? Perhaps you are wrapped in newspaper with cartoon characters and advertisements. Or maybe, you are in a brown plain wrapper with no frills. What does one get when they open the package? Does the wrapping reflect the gift inside? Whatever you are wrapped in, make sure that the Gift of You reflects joy, love, transparency, and trust. Jesus came in what we would probably call a brown paper bag ... with no pretty bows, no richness of color, just a plain ordinary wrapper yet He was the greatest treasure, the most awesome gift the world has ever known.
Some of you may think, that the gift of you isn’t worth much … if that is you … remember Jesus thought you were worth dying for … accept His precious gift of life. Reflect His gift in sharing all He is and all that you are in Him, give all that He gave and all that you can, prepare all that you have and be prepared to give all. He desires no more than that you give … yourself … and He has showed you in His great mercy that the gift of you is the most precious gift of all.
So, today I am determining in my heart to give more of who I am in Him to those whose lives are entwined with mine. For me, that means trusting those I feel I can’t trust, loving those I may not feel love toward, forgiving when it’s the hardest thing to do and sharing my life in ways that may be uncomfortable. What does giving the Gift of You mean for you?
