Faith Unfolding: The Gift

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Contemplation #1

2013

I can't say that I am a girl that lives for shopping but I do love it when I have the perfect gift to give. You know what I am talking about- When you know that you have a winner, don't you?

You may or may not watch the sales paper. You search store after store for the exact color, shape, functions, size... When you find it, you are elated. You check the bag six times on the way home, to not only confirm that it is still with you; but you just want to take it out and look at it again, and then again. ... and then again.

To see it. To touch it. To remind yourself of how awesome it is. There is a satisfaction in having it to give.

What about being a recipient of that gift? When someone else gives you the perfect one, very seldom do we hide it away. It's out so you can admire it and so that others can ask you about it. It's on the top shelf so it won't get broken. Every time you touch it, your reflexes begin wiping it off so that it maintains the luster of new.

As the Christmas Holiday drew closer, my mind just kept thinking about different "gift" analogies... I knew that there was something to write. I couldn't seem to tie them all together. When I prayed about closing it, I was startled when I felt the reply "You don't get it yet."

So, I prayed to get a better understanding.

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Contemplation #2

2014

Almost a year later on Thanksgiving I picked up my cousin Suzi. Her son is away at school in California and she was on the phone with him. I couldn't help but overhear part of the conversation.

She was asking Him about emails that she had sent Him earlier in the week. It was kind of funny. I don't really know what He was saying but she had a certain motherly urgency in her tone. I pictured Him on the other end of the phone, rolling his eyes and sighing "Yes mother. I have the emails." "No, I haven't read them." "Yes, I will."

On this side of the call though, I heard something different. The pang of disappointment. I could interpret what her heart was saying underneath... "I have prepared this gift for you."

I asked her about it when she got off the phone. She explained about some deadlines. She did the work to get the information for him. There were several messages of varying sorts but she had spent time putting it all together for him. Something He needed. Something he'd want. Something that would help him. That same undertone surfaced again and all I could hear was "My love spent so much time preparing this thing for Him and He just doesn't receive it."

It struck me that this is the gift that that I was supposed to be writing about. He has prepared something for us and we just don't receive it.

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Contemplation #3

I once read somewhere that if you're dying of thirst, believing in water won't save your life. You have to drink it for it to help, or change, or save you. In John 4 Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman and says "IF you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water." We don't ask for more or even at all because we don't yet know that He is.

And we don't know yet that we don't know.

Take a drink.

My commentary in my Bible says: "The woman mistakenly believed that if she received the water Jesus offered, she would not have to return to the well each day. She was interested in Jesus' message because she thought it could make her life easier. But if that were the case, people would accept Christ's message for the wrong reasons. Christ did not come to take away challenges but to change us on the inside and to empower us to deal with problems from God's perspective." and "Faith is a gift that grows as we use it."

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And still here it is now 2 years after beginning this post [probably 20 years since being saved] and I think I am just now beginning to get it. We can spend all of Christmas [or Christianity] talking about the importance of receiving Christ; and even doing a good job reminding ourselves to stay focused.

Maybe we believe that there is a God and that the whole message of Jesus is a real and true account. And yet still sometimes we don't even know that we're not applying/allowing (for a lack of a better word) the God given freedom that comes only by letting Him saturate our lives.

The water is the Word of God.

We share the message asking others to believe in Him when we should be pleading instead for others to take the drink. Offering it, serving it, filling our vessels and seeking the thirsty to refresh, until we know that they fully receive it too.

Trust me when I tell you that I am not there yet either.

And before we get into heretics, let me clarify that the Bible says you ONLY have to believe! You don't have to practice rituals or complete checklists to find salvation. (Mark 5:36, John 3:15-16)

But even the Samaritan woman ran away and HAD TO TELL EVERYONE what Jesus was doing in her life. And because of her testimony, others came to hear for themselves and they too believed.

WHO are you telling?

Why are we ALL not shouting from the rooftops (((I KNOW A REDEEMER WHO LIVES)))?

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Contemplation #4

Luke 11:33 says "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light.”

Boy that sounds like contemplation #1 now doesn't it?

1 John 1:5-6 – “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.”

Yet how many times are we bogged down instead by current circumstances? While we believe in the message, we don't receive the power to keep the light bright amidst that circumstance. We let darkness dim our light.

If you and I aren't as excited about our faith as the Samaritan woman- If we don't believe that we have something in the gift of Jesus that we are proud of and -needing- to share, elated to give, and holding out for everyone to see-

If we don't have the urgency for others to know what this light is that we have inside-

If you can't find a reason to love [or even invite] everyone that sits [to sit] at your table;

If you do not have hope even when you don't know all of the answers-

If your Christ in the morning isn't the same Christ at the end of the day or if he isn't relative on the other days aside from Sunday-

If you believe that he changes hearts and you stay the same; be it addiction, insecurity, fear or anger, etc.

If you are not certain of your salvation, filled with awe and mystery or moved to fall on your knees when think of Him-

Hear me now, if you are not burning and if others are not warmed when they are near you, comforted by what your light brings to their darkness-

Could it be that even you [and I] do not fully receive what is before us?

What IT IS that Christ offers?

Ask yourself, have I left something on the table?

After all, He didn't give us eternal life so that we could spend our earthly lives hopeless.

Now let that settle for a minute…

or a day.

or a lifetime.

However long it takes-

The good news is that just like Jesus told the Samaritan woman, you and I can ask Him for a drink. Better yet, we can ask Him to give us the desire to drink it. The psalmist wrote "like the deer pants for water, O' my soul pants for you." Are you panting? For him alone? Ask him.

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Contemplation #5

Colossians 2:6 - says “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

You must continue because there is always more behind the same message. You can spend your life unfolding the mystery of Christ. Unwrapping new meaning and luster in your spirit.

“For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And He will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. -Isaiah 9:6

If anything on the list of "what ifs" struck you- Whatever your darkness is friend, whether it be shame or sin; Even if it is only your doubt, resistance or lack of desire; our God and our gift is first- a counselor that will show you the way.

"I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." - John 10:10

If we don't fully process who He is in that sentiment, we may never be able to process beyond that to know that He is a MIGHTY God. –Or that we can go to Him first like a Father or that He brings peace. First He must counsel.

His gifts come to each of us in many forms and variations. Each one is specifically and thoughtfully and freely offered to each of us. Already prepared. No matter what we have attained, there is more to grasp again. Continue.

Because is it EXCEEDINGLY MORE than all that we have ever asked for or imagined. - Ephesians 3:20-21

What have you given this season or might you give in the next?

What might you receive?

There is only one perfect gift.

He makes us

and all things

new.