I’m so thankful for God’s patient love for me. He not only blesses me with gifts beyond comprehension but He also lovingly de-packages them when I fail to understand what He’s given me. I was reminded of this a few months ago at my nephew’s birthday party. Like many newly-turned-three-year-olds, he received lots of big, bright toys. Some of them he played with immediately. Others required a little extra assistance. You’ve seen the ones I mean, the toys that are tied to their boxes with plastic cords, pull tabs, and enough extra cardboard to stump the wisest among us!  These gifts looked nice, but he didn’t really understand what they were supposed to do until someone de-packaged them, removed all the outside wrappers, and made the gift accessible to his small but busy little hands.

Isn’t that what God does for us? He gave us the gift of His Son. He sent Him to be born in a dirty, smelly stable. He gave us the gift of His Son living among us, teaching us and showing us how to live. He gave us the immeasurable gift of sacrificing His Son as payment for our sins so that we can be forgiven and made pure. He gave us another gift when He raised His Son from the dead and showed us once and for all that death is not the end. And if we will only trust Him, He promises to give us the gift of eternal life when this life ends.

But even though He has given us more than we can imagine, He isn’t through. If it stopped there, we would be no different than a toddler who knows he’s been given a gift but doesn’t know what to do with it. We would fail to see the potential, the purpose behind the gift.

So He gives us even more. He gives us His Word to show us the big picture and sends His Spirit to enable us to begin to grasp what it all means.

He tells us His purpose:

“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” John 10:10.

He shows us our problem:

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23.

He shows us where it will lead:

“For the wages of sin is death,” Romans 6:23a.

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,” Hebrews 9:27.

He shows us what He has done to save us:

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” Romans 5:8.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.

He has shown us how to respond:

“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” John 1:12.

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10.

And He shows us where this new life will lead:

“I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” John 14:3.

He knows that we still get confused. So He answers our questions as He answered Thomas’ years ago.

“Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:5-6.

All we have to do is believe He has given us the gift of Jesus and accept it. He welcomes us and our questions; He understands our limitations. And He will lovingly de-package the present and show us the purpose behind His gift, the greatest Gift of all.

*All Scripture quotes from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.