Friday, 26 December 2008
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The Art of Receiving
by miss goldenrod
'Tis the Season...when someone you didn't buy a gift for gives you one, and your first thought is, "Oh no! I didn't get them a thing!"
It's obvious when someone gives you an unexpected gift. There is this awkward moment where it's clear to the giver they won't be a getter. But perhaps they knew this. Perhaps they had found the perfect gift, and though there was no history of gift-giving between you, they couldn't pass. But what do we do? We stammer and scramble for the "emergency gift" we keep wrapped up for just such an occasion.
The first Christmas gift was one given without expectation of a return. It came in the form of a helpless infant, a child that would bring redemption from sins that separated us from the most holy God. I don't know of any other religion where the god laid down its life for its people.
How do we receive Jesus, having the full knowledge of the cost of this gift? I personally still have a difficult time understanding it, because nothing I had done or ever could do will ever equal the price he paid. That he saw me, all of us, as worth dying for? More appropriate for the season, that he chose to live an impoverished, hard life perfectly for us. Really, which was the harder feat?
I sometimes feel inadequate or guilty when I get an unreciprocated gift, sometimes too guilty to even use it. So in my shame, I put it aside or hide it because each time I see it, I realize how unworthy I am. But that wasn't Jesus' intent, for us to hide the gift he is. He lived and died for us to have a life better than we could have had on our own, and he wants us to enjoy it.
In the beginning was Love, and Love was with God, and Love was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Love all things were made; without Love nothing was made that has been made. In Love was life, and that life was the light of men.
Love was in the world, and though the world was made through Love, the world did not recognize him. Love came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received Love, to those who believed in Love's name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
Love became flesh and made his dwelling among us. John 1:1-4, 10-14, modified from the NIV
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Comments (6)
This is a really good post!!
The ability to receive is absolutely essential to the permission to give. One without the other is meaningless. Jesus said that is more blessed to give than to receive, but it does not preclude the necessity of being a gracious receiver. Especially the gift of eternal life from God! It is an insult to the giver to prescribe for them the conditions under which you are willing to receive their gift. I might add that this also includes our physical life itself and all the blessings that God bestows on the just and the unjust. The beauties of creation, art, music, love, etc. We are always receiving from God. But are we gracious in receiving or are we complaining that someone else has received more than we have. Or do we act as though we have to repay the Giver?
I concur! This is a great posting.
Not only did this God lay down his life for his friends he was the very creator of those friends and all that made up their supporting structure. As such it is utterly amazing that he would allow them to reject him at all! What an overwhelming display of meeknes in character! What an overwhleming demonstration of Love.
There he stands, the very creator of heaven and earth and all the universe allowing the pip-squeak of a deluded man pull His beard out by the roots and slap him across the face!
If it had been me there would have been a little burnt spots where they had each last stood and no one would have remembered their names or faces for eternity.
God, truely is Love!
aWESOME! I STILL have a problem with receiving gifts or people doing nice things for me in the world, so naturally I feel a sting for God loving me no matter what I do/say/think. I praise God for his goodness. HALLELUJAH!
This is a fantastic post!!
Amen! :]
rock on! :D excellent post!