It’s the Gift We All Need

Are you doing any dedicated Advent reading leading up to the Christmas season?  I mentioned in a previous post that I’m reading Ann Voskamp’s The Greatest Gift: Unwrapping the Full Love Story of Christmas this month.

Here’s what I read the other day that grabbed my attention.

“Worry is belief gone wrong.  Because you don’t believe that God will get it right.”

Sit with that for a while.  Doesn’t that drill right down into the root of all our worry?

When we worry, we’re basically saying, “God, I don’t trust you with the outcome of this situation.”  We think that we know what’s best – and we’re not sure it’s going to work out that way.  And if God doesn’t do it the way we think it should be done, then we’re convinced it will end badly.

Yes, we know in our heads Romans 8:28, that all things work together for good.  And we know we should be able to trust God with whatever we’re facing.  Yet our human hearts and minds seem hardwired to worry.

But, my sweet friends, we can rest in the knowledge that God will get it right.

We’ve lived long enough to know that hard times will come.  And when they do, we can know that God stands ready to provide for our need.  Here’s what Voskamp goes on to say.

“In the thin air of Advent, you may not even know how to say it out loud: ‘I thought it would be easier.’  And your God comes near:  I will provide the way.

You may not even know who to tell:  ‘I thought it would be different.’  And your God draws close:  I will provide grace for the gaps.

You may not even know how to find words for it:  ‘I thought I would be…more.’  And your God reaches out:  I will provide me.

God gives God.  That is the gift God always ultimately gives.  Because nothing is greater and we have no greater need.”

In this season of giving and receiving, there’s no greater gift than God.  The original Christmas gift, a babe born in a manger, for the purpose of redeeming the world to God, is ours for the taking.

There’s nothing greater we can do than point people to that gift, to Jesus, the One who can meet their every need.  No wrapped box under the tree is worth more than what Jesus gives, salvation to all who believe.

And I love that phrase “grace for the gaps.”  Because sometimes it’s not an overwhelming calamity that I’m facing.  It can be a relatively small struggle.  But even there, His grace can fill in the cracks, meeting me right where I am.

Remember this other Romans 8 verse, number 32?  It says, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

We serve a great God who desires to give us every gift that will be good for us and bring glory to Him.  And more of Him is always just what we need.

Related posts:
Unwrap the Gift of Peace This Christmas
Keeping Perspective in the Christmas Season
Are You Getting What You Want for Christmas?