SPECIAL CHR ISTMAS MESSAGE
a GIFT that keeps GIVING/ by Al Sanders
C hristmas means the receiving of gifts, some of which are not great ly useful. I heard of an interesting gift for the man who has everything. It is a large gunney sack to put it in. When my oldest daughter was in first grade, she brought home a present for her daddy. Her bright eyes flashed brilliantly as she waited to have me open it on Christmas. Though crudely wrapped, it was a real treasure, I can assure you. After taking off the ribbon and removing what seemed to be an endless mass of Scotch tape, there it was, a great glob of some unidentifiable object. Eagerly, she asked, “Daddy, do you like it?” Reaching out to give her a big hug and kiss, I responded, “Sweet heart, anything you make for your daddy, I would love.” This was what she had been waiting to hear. So she hurried back to her gifts. I turned to my wife, Margaret, and said, “Honey, it’s lovely, but what in the world is it?” (As it turned out, it was a large paper weight. I’m still not sure of what substance it is made.) The gun ney sack and this paper weight are interesting gifts, but they are certain ly not practical. God has given us gifts, however, which are, as we read in Scripture, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither sha dow of turning” (James 1:17). Contrast what God bestows upon us to the rewards of iniquity and sin, namely everlasting death. The word “good” here represents an act which is better suggested in the statement “freely given.” What is it that God has freely given to us? His only be gotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Man is hopeless and helpless apart from this saving, redeeming grace. Sometimes men give in order to cur ry favor. At this time of the year a salesman, enterprising and industrious,
eager to win a bigger amount, may go after his prospect with a special gift. He knows he can write off at least a portion of it on his income tax. He actually has an ulterior motive which is to win favor. But God’s good gift does not come with any thought of reward or gratitude; it is not a form of “payola.” It is simply His complete and inexhaustible love given to a world which is spiritually bankrupt. Some years ago the mayor of Boston was concerned about the plight of the people in his community. It was during the depression years, and in order to know exactly what it was like for his citizens, the mayor let his beard grow, got some old clothes, disheveled his hair and went down to a depressed area of the city. Entering a run-down hotel, he asked if he might have a place to sleep for the night. The man ager said that unless he had money there would be no place. The disguised mayor replied that he would be willing to work if only he could have a place to sleep. The man took pity on him and showed him to the back yard where there was a stack of wood that had to be cut and split. The mayor removed his coat, rolled up his sleeves and be gan to chop away. Unaccustomed, how ever, to hard labor, he was not getting very far; his heart began beating fast er and faster. A younger man had watched all this and with pity in his eye he kindly took the ax away from the mayor saying, “Here, let me do that for you. You’re too old to have to work that hard.” When he had finished the mayor said, “Young man, I want you to come to my office tomorrow afternoon at four o’clock. If you do, I promise you, I will give you a job.” The young man was somewhat puzzled but he was completely perplexed when the mayor handed him his business card. Scratching his head, the benefac- | tor thought, “This poor old fellow has 22
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