Musings on gifts

"Our heavenly Father is a loving and personal God, Who wants us to have the best and be the best. For these very reasons, He has blessed the Body of Christ with spiritual gifts." ~ Bible teacher, minister and author Marilyn Hickey

My mom knows me well. She knows that I don't cook. She never raised me to cook. I never cooked. I don't like cooking. I don't want to talk about cooking. Regardless of these absolute facts, she gifted me with a slow cooker three years ago. THREE YEARS ago. Every...single...time I speak with her since then, she wants to know if I've used that thing.

Mom knows best. She doesn't care that I lived in 90 degree weather year-round when she gave me the cooker: she wants her grandkid to have home cooked meals, and she wants me to cook them...in that slow cooker.

Mom's gift is useful, so I'm expected to use it. She checks in with me to remind me that I have the gift that she gave me, and that life will be much better for me and for my loved ones if I would just put my gift to use.

The thought that God loves us in a personal way is a powerful one. The thought that He provides us with gifts--gifts to receive AND gifts to give to others in service--is overwhelming to me, in a positive way.

If someone has a cool gift for me, I want it! I want to see it, handle it, ooh and ahh at it, and show it off to other people. I want others to hold it and look at it and ooh and ahh with me. If it's a useful gift, I want to share its use with others. Even if it's something that I would not necessarily have chosen for myself, the fact that someone thought enough of me to gift me is humbling. It makes me smile, and makes me want to give back to them. It also makes me want to gift others, and to experience their positive responses as well.

How much more true should this be for our gifts from God? He wants us to savor His gifts to us, share them, be inspired by them, and see them as a loving example of His kindness, thoughts and provisions toward us, our families, our communities, and toward the Body of Christ.

We are also to put our gifts to good, appropriate use, as instructed by our Giver.

My mom's gift to me has been terrific! After a few years with the foreign cooking apparatus in the cupboard of my kitchen, our living environment and circumstances changed. We moved into a colder climate, and I changed from off-site work to having a home-based office. It is important that I cook more at home, and that I make warm meals that stick to the ribs. Her gift was given in preparation for what I might need in the future; and has more uses than I understood when I first received it. Humbling, indeed!

Ref: Matthew 7:11