The Greatest Gift
I can already tell that you are hesitating to read a third devotion in a row on gifts. I’m there with you. In fact, with the exception of a few select gifts, I hardly remember what anyone has given me over the years (be honest, you are the same way too - just don’t say it out loud).
One gift I remember was a gift I got when I was about 10. I really wanted and got a pair of Star Trek communicator walkie-talkies. I remember riding in the bed of my dad’s covered pickup truck with my sister hoping that I could hear a conversation on the same frequency that the walkie-talkies were on. But what is interesting about that gift is that I don’t remember much else about it. I remember wanting it, I remember getting it and I remember the first few days I had it. I have no idea what happened to them after that.
I think it is because the walkie-talkies were things. My soul felt a need and my nature decided that Star Trek communicator walkie-talkies were the perfect fit (probably after watching some cool Saturday morning commercial advertising them) for that hole. They seemed to bring me happiness for a short period, but reality crashed in and I figured out that the hole was still there.
If it wasn’t painfully obvious from the previous two devotions about presents, I’ve come to realize that the people behind the present are much more important than the present itself. My mom showing a servant leadership example, my in-laws raising my wonderful wife and my son developing to the point of realizing that material stuff is only part of the Holliday.
This made me start to think, what is the greatest present? Of course, the answer is obvious.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” - John 3:16-21 ESV
I can’t imagine a better present than having a God that loves us so much, knowing that he can’t abide our sinful nature, sending his son to die for our sins to reconcile us to him. This is easily the greatest present anyone could ever get.
