I love to receive gifts. I’m sure you do too. What’s wonderful about opening a gift is knowing the love and care that the gift-giver has gone to in selecting what is inside. It is often the thought that makes us grateful more than what we receive.
The gift might be exactly what we wanted or needed, and that’s wonderful too, but, the gift-giver adds value to the object. It’s nicer to receive it from someone than going out and buying it for ourselves. And often the reminder about who gave us the gift brings continuing joy through the days, months, and years. “So and so gave me that,” we might say years later.
At the beginning of Genesis, God said “I give you…”
Let’s pull those three words apart for a moment.
“I’—God the Creator, who had formed everything out of nothing said, “I give you…” He gave you and me the earth and the universe he had made through his magnificent power, the beauty of a sunrise to enjoy, the oceans we dip our toes into to relax and be restored, peaches, olives, vegetables to nourish our bodies…
When the first couple, Adam and Eve, heard those words “I give you…” I wonder if they realized who they were dealing with—a generous God. God gave them everything he had just created. Everything! That was his gift. His gift was good, beautiful, perfect.
I wonder if we truly realize too, that God is a generous gift-giver who gives us everything good.
This God who creates the beauty of a rainbow that makes us gasp in awe, the complexity of the universe that scientists are still trying to fathom, who owns and commands and rules over everything we know and said “I give you…”
“I give you…”
Each one of us, regardless of whether we acknowledge God or not, is a recipient of God’s goodness. Jesus said, about God: “He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong” (Matthew 5:45 CEV).
“What are we doing with all that God has given us? How are we being grateful? Are we using and enjoying the gifts he has given us?
Look out today for God’s generosity in your life. Make a list, in your head or, better still, write down what God has given you and then use the prayer below.
Pray
