I’m sitting here this evening thinking about gifts. It is difficult not to do so the eve before Christmas. Did I remember everyone? Did I get the right thing? Will they like it or will they regift it? That would be better than having it reside in the bottom of a drawer for the next twenty years. Would they give it back? Nobody does that; especially if it is extraordinarily valuable.
But that is not always true. People do give back the most precious Gift they ever received. Usually it is young people with little if any developed concept of time. When we are children the seventy or eighty years we have ahead of us is an eternity. When they accept the Gift of eternal life from Jesus there is little difference between that Gift and what they already have. Somewhere along the journey, perhaps in their twenties they give back the gift without a thought. It just happens as they get busy with life and careers and families. Life becomes too full for their relationship with Jesus. Absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. It makes the heart forget. Hopefully in a few decades when mortality becomes real they will reaccept the Gift. How grand that it is always there. God never goes away. It’s us that go away.
I have always wanted to regift salvation. Of course I wanted to give it away and yet still keep it. I wondered if there was anyone I would regift it to and NOT retain it. Jesus asked, “What would a man give in exchange for His soul?” For me the answer is simple. My wife – my children – my grandchildren. How amazing that Jesus gave it away for His enemies!!
Written by Roger Bothwell on December 24, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org