The Greatest Gift



"For God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not die, but have eternal life. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

This is the message. After we have sorted through all of the debates and disagreements about theology, and how to properly "do church..." whether we baptize by immersion or sprinkling...whether we sing with instruments or without...whether we understand that God saves us entirely through his own work, or whether it is somehow through a combination of his work and our work...the message is a simple one, and it remains the same. This is the message, from the Gospel of John...and it never changes:

God loves us, and he gave his one and only son in order to bring us home to him.

Can we possibly believe a message so void of complexity? Can we accept the gift, just as it's offered to us? Or will we debate it? Analyze and dissect it? Will we try to make ourselves good enough to receive the gift, or will we simply accept that it is true, and rejoice in the wonder of it all?

Yesterday I shared the story of how my Grandmother used to stand at the top of the carport steps, waiting for our family to finally arrive home. She waited for our car to pull into the gravel driveway and send the farm dogs into a barking frenzy that hailed our coming...we had no cell phones then...no way to let her know we were almost there...but she always seemed to know when we were going to arrive, and there she stood...waiting for us...ready to receive us with open arms and a happy smile of welcome.

Did we analyze or debate the authenticity of her love, or the joyful welcome she extended to us? Did we stop a few miles away and rush into a gas station restroom to "clean up" for our homecoming? No...of course not! We did not question or debate her love, nor did we try in any way to earn her affection...we simply trusted the love offered to us, and gratefully received her happy embrace. No clean up was required, and there was never any fear of rejection...the love was always true, and the welcome was always sure...and this is what made it home.

Funny then, isn't it? Most of us struggle to believe that God loves us...that he stands waiting for us to come home...we fail to comprehend the wondrous truth that he gave everything he had in order to bring us home to him again. Sometimes religion gets in the way. The purest and simplest message of Christmas can be lost in the shuffle...but this is still the message...and God's love for us is still the greatest gift.

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