The Gift Too Wonderful For Words

By Roy Lessin, Co-Founder, Dayspring Cards.

Do you remember what you got for Christmas five years ago? Three years ago? Last year? One thing about Christmas gifts is that they are meaningful at the moment, but few of them are memorable.

My first memorable Christmas gift came when I was in Bible School. I had very little money at the time, and most of my clothes were gathered from a good-will barrel that was located in the school’s laundry room. My wife-to-be invited me to her parent’s farm in Northern Minnesota during our Christmas break. As I gathered with her family on Christmas morning, they handed me a nicely gift-wrapped box.

When I opened the gift box I discovered a pair of golden-brown, leather boots.
I loved those boots! I wore them all winter, and the next, and the next. I wore those boots on the mission field and when we moved back to the states. I wore them until the leather was so scratched and beaten that they were beyond repair. I will never forget that gift and the love that was expressed by those who gave it.

One sure way to receive a gift that is memorable is to receive “the whole” of something, and not just a “small part.” Suppose you love the music of Mozart. At Christmas you receive a new CD release of a Mozart concerto performed by your favorite orchestra. The CD is very meaningful to you, but it never becomes memorable because it is only a “small part” of his music. On the other hand, if you were to receive the complete CD collection of every piece of music that Mozart ever wrote, you would have received a gift you’d never forget.

Did you know that God wants to make His gift to you not only meaningful, but also memorable? So memorable that you will remember it forever! God could never do this if He only gave you a small part of the whole. He didn’t send His Son, Jesus Christ, to give you just peace, or joy, or hope. He gave His only begotten Son so that you could have the “whole Jesus,” not just a small part of Jesus!

Receiving the gift of the “whole Jesus” is far, far better than our illustration of Mozart’s CD collection—with the CD collection you get all of Mozart’s music, but you don’t get Mozart. What a gift that would be! —Mozart, with you throughout your lifetime, writing one piece of music after another just for your ears to hear and your heart to enjoy.

What a gift God has given you! You not only receive every spiritual blessing that Jesus has to give, but you also receive Jesus—living in you, being with you, writing His songs of joy upon your heart forever.

“Thank God for His Son--His Gift too wonderful for words.”
II Corinthians 9:15 TLB