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As I sit on the living room floor, the Christmas music plays on the radio as I look to the already collected gifts sitting all around me. I begin the process of wrapping up each one carefully. I'd gather the gifts for each person, wrap them in shiny paper and then stack them one atop the other and finally tie them with curling ribbon that I'd take my scissors to and make piles of shimmering ribbon curls at the peak of the gift pyramid. With all that wrapping around the gifts, it usually was impossible to guess what was inside. It was only when the wrapping would be torn open, that the true identity of the gift would be made known.
The process of shopping, organizing, and wrapping the gifts was always fun. Waiting for Christmas morning to give and have the gifts get opened was always difficult. I always want to give my gifts as soon as I wrap them, but somehow I manage to contain my excitement and wait until Christmas morning.
In 1 Corinthians 12, God is described as the giver of gifts to each and every person. The variety of gifts God distributes is amazing: "wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues." The gifts lists we are more familiar with this holiday season are filled with things like WII game systems, ipods, toys and stockings filled high with candies and treats. The gifts that God gives, thankfully are not limited to one day a year; and they are ones that hold an infinite value here on earth as well as in heaven.
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (The Message)
God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful:
wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues.
All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when.
The gifts of God also include the fruit of the spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22)"
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With all these gifts and all the people in the world, I wonder if God looks at each one of us and says, "Ah here is the gift for this one. I think I'll give her trust." or "Wow, that gift would work together so well with peace, I'll have to give him wisdom as well." Does God expectantly line up his gifts to us and imagine our reactions when we open them?"
I sometimes wonder about the different gifts God give to his children. I even have wondered at times at my own gifts and thought that they might be better used with someone with more time, more focus, or more of something that I might feel I'm running low on.
Sometimes I may wish that I could ask God, "Hey can I exchange some of this proclamation for some peace? Because proclaiming means I will have to declare something for you that is typically insistent, proud, or defiant in either speech or writing. You know God, peace seems like a much better fit instead of having to be bold all the time..." What kind of disappointment would I feel if someone reacted that way to the gift I'd given? Do you think God feels disappointed if we don't really want the unexpected gift we've begun to unwrap?
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The truth is, I'm not the one that gets to choose my own gift from God. God's gifts aren't ones that can be, or should we, desire to exchange or return for something else. I have to take each gift from God, unwrap it, figure out what it is, and ask God to help me as I search for it's function in my life. While the unwrapping of Christmas gifts happens in a flash, God's gifts sometimes take time to be revealed.
As we draw close to the season of Advent, we are in a time of waiting in expectant anticipation for the gift of Jesus to arrive on Christmas day. In this time of expectancy, I desire God to better reveal the gifts he has given me. I desire to gain a better grasp of how to implement and be faithful to use the gifts that have been given.
I like to imagine God, looking at me in the midst of this process of unwrapping, learning and applying his gift; and smiling wide because I'd learned to truly understand and appreciate and use it for the purpose he's designed. This Christmas I'd like to take my God given gift use them to give back to others and make God smile wide.
I know there is nothing like the feeling of seeing someone I love, love the gift that I've given them. It would only be right, for God to feel that sense of joy too.
Blessings to you on this upcoming Advent and Christmas season. May you unwrap all your gifts with expectancy, especially the ones that God give all year round!
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