All I have is a gift from God. Everything is within my relationship to God. I have nothing of my own. All is his and he has given all I have to me. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, outside the economy of the divine gift.
I have no rights within myself. I am totally dependent upon God. This is the true position of all people. We like to think of ourselves as independent self-made creatures but this is a delusion. We belong to God because we are his creation, existing only because he sustains us by allowing us to share in his fullness.
We even have to receive ourselves as a gift.
Seeing myself, my life, as a gift makes all of the difference in how I value my life. It is a treasured gift to be cherished. I don’t have it by right, but by gift.
Any measure of goodness I have is also a gift: “God gives because of his infinite goodness; he loves finite things into being and sustains them in being by his love. Whatever goodness creatures have, is a gift of his causal love.”[1]
Astonishingly, God gives himself to us. Jesus is born. His life is an unimaginable gift to us. “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. (Philippians 2:6-7). When God created us, he gave each of us the ability to receive his gifts.
And today, God gives us the freedom to decide if we’ll receive him. This in itself is also a gift.
And then he gives us the gift of highest value. Jesus gave up his life as a gift for us as well. “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8). His death on the cross is a gift to each one of us.
To summarize, our Creator God is truly a Giver of every good and perfect gift. Knowing these truths changes my worldview, my self-perception, and my theology.
There is a Creator God—I have a Maker.
I am ‘not-God’ but his creation. Therefore, I belong to him.
God freely created me and he freely gives existence to me—moment by moment he sustains me.
All I have, I have received as a gift.
He created me with the capacity to be able to receive gifts. That I can even receive gifts is a gift I have received.
I receive my own self as a gift he has given.
Contemplate the mystery that our Creator God is a radical Gift Giver. After all, he has given to me, I broke off my relationship. I turned my back and walked away. God entered into time and space and was born a baby, giving himself, his life, for me. God gives these astounding gifts, expressing his love for us.
Who can understand the depth of such love? Sacred, tremendous mysteries for us to contemplate. These are the gifts of Christmas.
[1] Engaging the Doctrine of Creation: Cosmos, Creatures, and the Wise and Good Creator by Matthew Levering, Baker Academic, 2017, chapter 5, loc 8395.