The best Christmas present in the world ever

Christmas is coming. Are you looking forward to it? At least it will be a break from work. You can legitimately spend some of your hard-earned cash and have an excuse to indulge yourself just a little bit.

For many, Christmas is a time to have a few unhurried drinks with friends and catch up somewhat. For others, Christmas is primarily a family time and we enjoy buying each other presents and spoiling our children for a few days.

Some people consistently find Christmas to be an anticlimax. There is so much hype but it's never as good as when you were a child. What a thrill it was when I got my first bicycle from Father Christmas. I was taken into the back garden with my eyes closed until I could gaze on the present I had longed for most. I took it through the back passage straight away to show to my friends up the road. Sadly, it was not long before the bike got wrecked. Accidents, leaving it out in the rain and general misuse shortened its life-span.

Perfect gift

The Daily Mail last year reported that the average family spends £826 at Christmas. Much of this money is spent on non-durables and presents that get forgotten or thrown out quite quickly. But there are gifts offered to all of us that never wear out. These are the gifts that are offered by God.

'Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights' (James 1.1 7).

Every Christmas should remind us of the greatest gift ever given to the world.
'For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life' (John 3.16).

This only Son is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is described in the Bible as being the image of the invisible God, the eternal Word, the creator of everything, the sustainer of creation and the one whom all heaven worships day and night. He is the one who God the Father says will 'last for ever and ever and righteousness will be the sceptre of your Kingdom' (Hebrews 1.8). Yet it was he who God gave to the world to be born of a Palestinian peasant girl in an animal trough.

The greatest miracle

The eternal Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1.14). So God is not some uninterested spectator indiscriminately bestowing gifts on the world from time to time. He shared our human weakness and lived among the lowest classes of people. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us in our suffering, in our joys and sorrows.

Colonel James Irwin was one of the first men to land on the moon. The euphoric American television presenters swamped him and demanded of him: 'What was it like?' What an incredible achievement for mankind. But the colonel replied: 'The greatest miracle is not that man stood on the moon, it is that God stood on the earth.'

He was the gift to the world that the world neither asked for nor deserved. The world rejected him, called him a blasphemer, demanded his execution and even asked for the release of a common criminal instead of him. That first century Jewish world was just like us - a people lusting after new gadgets this Christmas while half the world starves. But he offers us his Son as a gift in spite and because of our moral corruption. Jesus, God's Son, became a personified rescue package for all who receive him.

How do I receive him?

My inclination is to give God something back. I want to pay for this gift and give my good works, my church attendance, my gifts to charity and to the poor. But there is nothing I can give almighty God. There is only one way I can receive him. As a famous carol puts it . . .

What can I give him poor as I am
If I were a shepherd I would give a lamb
If I were a wise man, I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give him, give my heart.

God says that because of his gift, we can give him our sinful heart and receive from him freely a new heart and a new life.

What shall I do with this gift?

I could look at it and then put it away for next year. Or I could unwrap it. I could come before God with my sinful heart and ask him to save me by his Son. 'Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door, it shall be opened' (Matthew 7.7,8).

Every year, about this time, if we go shopping, we hear George Michael singing in the shopping mall: 'Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away. This year to save me from tears, I'll give it to someone special.'

Only Jesus is truly special. Only he really knows what to do with your heart. God has given his Son so you might not perish but have eternal life. What he requires of you is to receive this gift and give him your heart in response, allowing him to be Lord of your life. Then he will become to you personally the greatest gift you can ever receive. Victor Hugo once wrote: 'Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved.' This Christmas you can know that happiness and claim for yourself this verse:

'The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me' (Galatians 2.20).

Chris Webb is the Friends International worker at the University of Surrey and a member of Guildford Park Church.

The best Christmas present in the world ever

Perfect gift

The greatest miracle

How do I receive him?

What shall I do with this gift?

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