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Gifts

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Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.  James 1:17 (ESV)

 

We know that is not about gifts, it about the gift, the gift of Jesus, whom God sent this world nearly 2000 years ago.  Gift above all gifts. Gift of hope for life eternal in Heaven. Gift of restitution, forgiveness, eradication of the guilt and shame we carry here.  Gift of new life through the Son, who came to live in the flesh, that we in the flesh, might have the option to live in the Spirit. His life brought His death and His death brought resurrection.  Christ not only makes our forgiveness possible, He makes our transformation possible as well. He can do all things, and through Him, we can do all that He calls us to. We know that He is limitless.  We also know that we are not. We can be so weak, in faith, in trust, in obedience. We know that He can do all things, but we also know that He will not do all things, He will only do that which pleases and glorifies the Father.  We too want to please and glorify the Father, but at the same time the self in us just wants to be comfortable.  We know that someday He will wipe every tear from the eyes of His beloved, and we know that He is making all things new.   We also know that someday may not be today, and that while He promises to make all things new, He does not promise to do that this side of Heaven.  Will we walk in faith through our tears, will we trust Him in what is unfixable this side of Heaven? Will we obey Him, and offer up a sacrifice of praise when it is hard to wait moment by moment for His grace?  

 

Most of the time we hope for gifts that fix.  Prayers that get answered the obvious way. Healing, restoration of relationships, the long awaited breakthrough that finally breaks through, miracles we can see and touch.  But what happens when we meet the unfixable? What happens when healing does not happen, when relationships remain broken, when the breakthrough never breaks through? What happens when the miracle is, that the miracle never comes and yet His grace is sufficient for us?  Either we will be led by the Spirit into the surrender that allows us to accept the gifts we are given, or we will sink into denial or despair. Either we will be willing to walk with Him through the brokenness that leads to wholeness, or we will cling in desperation to a hope of patching things up ourselves, which is sure to end in brokenness.    

 

There is much to be fixed, much that is unfixable.  In the brokenness we feel broken, sometimes we feel unfixable.  Christ did not come for those who thought they could be fixed, He came for those who knew that apart from His coming, they could not be.  What we actually need in our brokenness, is to acknowledge how much we need Him, and to proclaim His sufficiency in meeting our needs through His  life, death, and resurrection.  

 

Jesus did not fix our brokenness by waving a wand, but by entering into it.  He fixed our brokenness by putting it to death, and rising again with a righteousness can now He gladly impart to His followers.  Christ’s suffering produced an unspeakable glory. God does not allow our suffering in order to pay for our sins, Jesus has already done that.  But perhaps He allows it to give us the opportunity to share with Christ in His suffering, even as we will share in His glory. Even as we cannot rightly suffer without His strength,  perhaps we cannot rightly share His glory without His intervention.

 

We like it when the gifts God sends us fix things.  We like it when prayer gets answered the obvious way.  But the greatest gift is not the fixing of broken things, it is the fixing of broken lives.  It is the mending of our souls in such a way that although our hearts may break again this side of Heaven, our promise of the Glory to come cannot be broken.  Suffering can take many things from us, but it cannot take away God’s glory. There are many “gifts” that come along with being a child of God, but let us not forget that the greatest gift is the gift of adoption itself.      

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“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.  For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Romans 8:16-18

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Indeed, every good and perfect gift is from above.

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Indeed, we can trust the Giver.

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“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”  Romans 8:32

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