Mickey Starling
reporter3@greenepublishing.com
It’s that sweet time of the year when the leaves begin to transform into a variety of bright colors that oddly signify their end until the spring ushers in a new season of life.
I grew up loving this slot on the calendar because I knew good food and gifts were right around the corner. A little selfish, I know, but my mother could cook like no other. The aroma filling her kitchen would cause me to arrive at the dining table early, with my fork in the “ready” position.
Everything in life reveals things about our hearts, if we are paying attention. When Christmas rolled around, I was again ready for “opening day” on Christmas morning. I ripped through presents like a tasmanian devil, briefly admiring my haul before hunting another. Then, I played with my favorites before gradually forgetting that I received a thing.
I never gave any thought to the effort and sacrifice that was carefully wrapped in each gift, excluding the socks, which I assumed was a gag gift from the devil. I was rarely thankful for any of my gifts. After all, they were free, easy to obtain and just part of the Christmas tradition.
Then, I grew up. Boy, had I been wrong, selfish and insensitive. Is it a gift if I don’t appreciate the message behind it? If I fail to associate the price of what was freely laid in my hands or dismiss the gift because it didn’t come as I imagined proper, what have I done? I have transformed the gift into a mere obligation. Little to no meaning or value remains.
We can do the same thing in our approach to Christ. We hear the sermons about salvation and surely hell is a destination deserving of a detour. Then, a prayerful solution is offered where we ask Jesus to come into our lives and off we go. But, there’s a problem in the formula for many. The confession of faith was meant as a gate, not a gesture of acceptance.
The confession, in truth, comes by revelation given to the heart that I need a total renovation within or I am woefully lost. It’s a gift. To unwrap it requires my daily attention and surrender to the many gifts that follow as I learn his Word and hear His voice.
Each gift, if rightly understood, evokes a response of gratitude for the grace of God that perpetually is available to change me into His likeness. He signs each gift with the reminder that “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him” (Matt. 7:11).
Salvation is a gift of transformation and abiding presence. It costs Jesus his life to offer it, but it was a price He accepted because He wants us as His peculiar and precious gifts. But, it’s the change, the transformation from selfish to surrendered, willful to joyfully obedient that demonstrates the true value of the gift. To unwrap it or claim it without recognizing its value and purpose relegates it to an obligation that will soon be forgotten or ignored.
Heaven was meant to be the trailer park where the transformed enjoy their King and bask in His every move. They take little notice of streets of gold or glassy seas. These things pale to the love they see in His eyes. He is their beloved and they are His. His gaze is the gift. Anything else is an obligation and will soon be forgotten.