Day 19: Gifts

This post is one in a series of posts called “Glimpses of God” which I am writing as part of the Write31Days blog challenge. You can find the other posts here: 31 Glimpses of God Blog Challenge (#write31days)

God delights in giving His children good gifts. We see this all throughout the Bible, and then read it clearly in Matthew 7:11. I was reminded of this in a silly but profound way.
My wonderful parents have been staying with us for a visit and we all went to the mall yesterday. I took my daughter into a shoe store – because when it is 35 degrees in the morning, flip-flops won’t cut it anymore!
While we were doing some practical shopping, my dad took my son into a different shoe store to look at shoes I would never consider for him, not because their bad, but because I’m cheap cost conscience. My son loves shoes, while my daughter would honestly just throw some socks on and keep wearing flip-flops through the winter!
After about a half hour my son comes walking up to me. Well, actually he appeared to be floating on a cloud of happiness. He pointed to his shoes. He was wearing THE shoes. The ones he talks about, notices everywhere and had resigned to never getting. My son’s happiness was palpable, but when I turned to look at my dad, he was beaming too!
At that moment, I realized that my dad was experiencing as much joy in the act of giving, than my son was in receiving. We commented that my son didn’t need shoes, to which my dad answered, “well that’s the fun of it – he didn’t need them, but he wanted them and I wanted to give them to him.”
Just then I saw my glimpse: My Heavenly Father delights in giving gifts to His children. Granted His gifts may not be overpriced shoes, but His gifts are precious and good and wonderful.
The gifts He gives may not always be visible to us as gifts at first: a missed job opportunity may not feel like a gift at the time, but when that missed opportunity allows you to be available for the right one, you see it as the gift it was. A serious illness may not feel very gift-like at the time, but years later when you are able to offer comfort to others because you have been there and survived, you clearly see the gift that was given.
But of course there are also the obvious gifts, the ones that leave you feeling both loved and unworthy at the same time: money provided at just the right time, a positive pregnancy test, a call that a baby is waiting just for you, a loved one who turns to Jesus.
There are also the gifts that we so often take for granted: God’s Word in our hands, Jesus coming to take our place and bear God’s wrath, the breath we draw each day, the colors of autumn and on and on and on.
The Father delights in giving good gifts to His children. What gifts has your Father given you recently? Make a list. I bet you will be surprised by what you find.
See you tomorrow,
Jen