Seeing the Gift, Being the Gift

One of the many gifts I receive each day.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NIV)

Lent began two and a half weeks ago. For years I would give something up for Lent – you know, chocolate or alcohol or swearing (because I do those last two so much, no, not at all). This year I instead had decided that since my word of the year is “gift”, that I would find the gift in each day as well as provide a gift to someone else.

Be thankful for a simple act of kindness by a stranger. Find joy in leaving work early one day. Praise God for the melting snow after such a horrendous winter.

And in return, send a thinking-of-you card to a patient. Leave a large tip for a kind waitress. Buy a small gift for a co-worker going through a bad time.

And how had that been going for me? Not so well. Being the selfish, lazy sinner that I am, I’ve continued walking through my days as I have been. Helping out a stranger when it doesn’t inconvenience me, spending money on someone else when I have extra to spend, taking time to do something for someone only when I have the time. And thanking God for the obvious gifts and forgetting to find the joy in the tiniest, most insignificant things.

But that’s why we have this season called Lent. Not to beat ourselves up over what a failure we are in God’s eyes, but to realize He loves us so much that the only time we disappoint Him is when we don’t love Him in return.

In the weeks to come, I’ll continue to try to find the gifts and be the gifts. But I’ll more importantly remember that Jesus is the greatest Gift.

(Wow! Just wow. I wrote this and then went to BibleGateway website to try to find an appropriate verse to open with. I was going to search for words like “sinner” and “gift”. Instead, because God is so amazing, when I opened the website, the verse above was the verse for the day. No need to search, instead, God has got me covered.)