It amazes me sometimes, the gifts I have received during my lifetime. I have had wonderful birthday and Christmas presents of course. Even got a painted rock from a client once. But I am thinking of the gifts from the Sacred, my clinical skills with people, my opportunities to travel across the world, the great people I have been gifted with meeting, the analytical skills that I use to perform my work, and my athletic skills. These are all gifts from the Sacred, whether I realized it or not at the time.
There is more though, there is this moment. There is this day. This life. The natural world that surrounds me. These are the true gifts, but how often have I missed them? How often have I heard the birds but not, as scripture says “considered them”? How often have I just awakened and said thank you for the next breath? This might seem minimal, but the little things, the least things…..those are the things of Christ.
And, unlike that really small shirt I got for Christmas one year that I could take back and exchange , the gifts of God are not ones you can exchange or take back to God and say, “can I have something a bit larger”? It doesn’t work that way with the gifts God gives, you get them and they are yours to do with as you see fit, but you cannot give them back or exchange them for a better fit.
No, the gifts are yours. This includes salvation or a salvific knowledge of God (depending upon how you identify this in your faith). All are saved, so scripture says. I take that to mean all of the world. Now, if I give you a gift and you never open it, that is quite sad and quite a waste, but it is your choice. That is salvation, a gift already given to all. Whether they open it or not, that is their choice. It is our choice: do we open the great gifts of God that we have been given or do we waste them by never opening the package. Or maybe we open the package but don’t like the gift and never use it. It is your choice………
TMM