God's Gifts Are Eternal Gifts

Is there a gift, perhaps from a Christmas or birthday when you were a child, which still brings a smile to your face, or is something you still possess? I have a photo of Christmas Eve from about 1968, showing my family (minus Mom, the photographer!), gathered around our “open one gift on Christmas Eve (after the Christmas Eve worship service)” tradition. The Christmas Tree is lit, and my brother and I are each playing with a new toy. Dad has also opened one gift for the sake of the picture.

It’s funny. I don’t remember playing with that toy on any other day, though I probably did enjoy it for a time. The photo brings back the memory, but the toy is long gone. The real gift is still with me. Part of that gift is certainly the memories of good family events, many of which were centered on our life with our church family and worship, Sunday School and VBS and Potluck dinners.

I pray that all of us can look back on those early memories and still be blessed by them. These, to me, reflect the amazing nature of the everyday gifts of God to us. The gifts are good when they occur yet have a long-term nature in our lives. Ultimately the actual gifts promised us by God are not merely long-lasting but truly eternal. The eternal love of God for us and the gift of eternal life in Christ are no mere words of hope; they are promises of God through which we have eternal hope.

Pastor John Scheuermann