Matthew 7:11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!

It is amazing to me how faithful God is. Just the other day, I was trying to remember where this verse was located. The passage came to mind as I was considering what to speak on for an upcoming luncheon – but I couldn’t remember where it was located. I thought about it again this afternoon as I was decorating the Christmas tree with my kids. Thinking about gifts as input into our lives. How much I love my kids – how much I want to teach them. The lessons I want to give to them so they don’t have to learn the hard way. And, yes – about presents. Gifts. How much fun it is to give things to them. The delight on their faces. The joy it brings them. Made a mental note to look up the reference to this verse during my devotional – but God did it for me. It was in the reading today.
Those of you who are parents need no more explanation beyond this verse. It’s a total “duh” moment. I mean, how obvious? Take my love for Madison and Donovan. My desire to give them only the most wonderful things in their lives. Then multiply it to the nth degree. That’s how greatly God wants to pour out good gifts into my life.  I suppose it’s like any Christmas or birthday though. Sometimes, you don’t even realize you need something until you open the packaging. For example: this past week my MOPS group made apple pies. The steering committee got together to prep ingredients and put together about 75 pies to sell for our fundraiser. We had to measure 3/4 sugar into 50+ Ziploc baggies. I was searching around the counter for a quarter-cup measuring cup when someone directed me to the orange Tupperware sitting just in front of me. It was a 3/4 cup. A three-quarter cup measuring cup. Seriously. How did I not know such an amazing thing existed? It’s genius. Fabulous! Amazing. It was love at first sight. Prior to setting my eyes on it, I had zero clue that it is exactly what is missing from my kitchen gadgets drawer.

Sometimes, I think God’s gifts are like that. He’s got all these incredible blessings to give us, but we don’t even know we’re missing them. We live self-absorbed lives. Obsessed with whatever the “it thing” of the moment is. We don’t take the time to get before Jesus and ask what He might be wanting to show us, teach us, give us. When we find ourselves in the middle of a lesson – we complain. We assume God has decided to punish us, instead of taking a step back to see what gift He may be trying to bestow that we just aren’t ready for yet. Some gifts require work. Unless you are one of those people who gets a 1500 piece toy and has no problem assembling it without the instructions, you know what I mean by gifts that need a little effort before they are usable.

The next month or so, my kids focus will naturally fall on whatever new gifts are sitting beneath the tree. They have little homing devices that tell them when something has been added to the pile. I want to be that way with God. I want to be aware constantly of His desire to shower me with gifts. To be on the lookout for them. Eagerly anticipating the next good gift He’ll be dropping my way. And appreciating every single one…especially the gifts I wasn’t expecting.