The Gift that Keeps on Giving
At age four, my son decided he wanted to pick out a Mother’s Day gift all by himself—no more scribbling his mark on a present picked out by his dad. No—he intended to get it himself.
Graham settled on the cheesiest piggy bank ever made. Normally my wife would roll her eyes and laugh at such a pink monstrosity; she has zero tolerance for tacky, cluttering presents.
But when she opened the present she cried genuine tears of joy; she knew this present came from Graham, and she felt so touched by the thought and gesture that the tackiness didn’t faze her; she even put it on her nightstand in our bedroom. Graham wore a hundred-watt-smile when he saw Lisa’s tears. Nothing made him happier than to give a present that so delighted his mom that he made her cry.
God, as the giver of many gifts, would love to see us cry tears of joy and gratitude when he gives us gifts that bring us pleasure. If you see this world and your life as a gift from a loving creator, and every Christian should, then let’s honor that gift by enjoying it. God has given us taste buds, nerve endings, the capacity to laugh, the ability to create, eyes to marvel, minds to wonder, noses to smell, and hands to feel. We give back to him in proportion to how much we enjoy these good gifts. When one of his gifts obviously moves us—as Graham’s did my wife—then we bring a smile to God-the-giver’s face.
The first recorded words God spoke to humans introduced a gift: “Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over…every living creature… I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food” (Gen. 1:28, 29).
Do you think he might be waiting for us, perhaps for the first time in our lives, to truly open up the gift of life and savor it? While we busy ourselves trying to serve God, do you think he might wait for us to honor him by relishing the world he has made? Will you worship him by receiving these gifts and enjoying them, without guilt, and with great gratitude?
When the church teaches a glum faith of responsibility, devoid of joy; when the pulpit treats pleasure like some kind of spiritual leprosy; when people of faith speak as though they are anti-sex, anti-humor, anti-fun, anti-anything-that-brings-pleasure, we risk fostering the kind of devotion that the Bible shockingly and without reservation rejects.