“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Are you ready for Christmas? Are all the decorations in place? Are all the plans made? Have you purchased all your Christmas presents?

One thing that has become a large part of Christmas is giving and receiving gifts. But the only way that gift giving really works is if the gift is something that is undeserved, unearned, a surprise. Your employer pays you for working, you earned it, it’s not a gift.

Do you see all of life as a gift? You can go through life in one of two ways: either your life is way, way better than you deserve or your life is way, way worse than you deserve. But if you go through life thinking your life is way worse than you deserve, you’re going to always be miserable. If something good happens, you’ll say, “It’s about time.” If something bad happens, you’ll say, “I don’t deserve this.” Do you have a deep sense of owedness in life?

What do we deserve? “the wages of sin is death.” That means, since you’re a sinner, you deserve death- hell, eternal punishment. That’s what you and I deserve from God.

But that’s not what God gives us. Instead, He gives His one and only Son. God with us, Emmanuel, born into our world, placed into a manger. God gives us His own Son who lived for us, died for us, rose from the dead for us. With Jesus you have forgiveness of sins, life, eternity in heaven! It’s a gift! The “gift of God is eternal life.”

So, whether you have many presents or few, whether you have presents or not, with Jesus you have the greatest present ever: God’s grace, mercy, and love forever! That means all of life is a gift, it’s all undeserved, it’s all icing on the cake, it’s all a surprise, it’s all dessert!

Yes, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

A blessed Christmas to you!
pastor