REASON FOR THE SEASON...Day 14

I love buying gifts for those I love, especially when it is something I know they will be excited about!!  Even better when it is something they will not be expecting.

I love beautifully wrapped gifts.  Pretty paper, elegant bows...all designed to dazzle and tantalize.

On CHRISTmas morning, when we all gather around the tree, with packages spilling from beneath, what is it that you look forward to most?  Do you and you family ooh and aah over the beautifully wrapped packages?  Do you take multiple pictures of them?  Do you pull each one apart and get individual shots of each one from different angles?  Do you pass them around the room so each person can relish the beauty of each?  Because that IS the objective isn't it?  To admire the beauty of the packages and congratulate the wrapper on a job well done?

NOT!!  At least not at OUR house!  At our house we pass out the gifts to each family member and they can hold them and admire them until it is their time to open one, but that is when the admiration for the wrappings ends.

But let's rewind a bit.  What if on CHRISTmas morning, we gathered around the tree, admired the beauty of the gifts and then when we were handed our gifts,we refused to take them?  Imagine the giver standing there with their gift in hand, extending it to us, waiting for us to receive it, anticipating our joy when it is opened, only to have us refuse it.  Can you imagine??!!

Yet that happens every day with JESUS.  Every day He stands with His free gift of eternal life extended to men and women around the world, and every day His gift is refused by many.  It is the greatest gift anyone could ever hope to receive, yet they turn away.

John 1:12 says "To all who did receive Him, to those who believed on His name, He gave the right to become the children of God."  You see, contrary to what many proclaim, we are not ALL God's children.  Unless you have RECEIVED HIM as your Savior, you are NOT His child!  You must receive the gift that He is offering to you.  It is a costly gift.  It cost Him his very life.  Yet He loves you so much that He extends that free gift to you.  All you need to do is believe and receive.  God gave His most precious gift to each one of us.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:16

So this CHRISTmas, have you RECEIVED your gift yet???