December 2022 - LPNI
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December 2022
LPNI Devotion
The perfect Gift
At Christmas time, I’m extremely relieved that my wife
enjoys shopping. I leave it to her to
buy gifts for family members and friends.
She has a flair for being able to buy what seems to be the right gift
for our children and grandchildren, and for other people.
In contrast to my wife, I’m not very imaginative when
I buy gifts for people. So she knows
better than to ask me to do so. If she
does ask me to buy a gift for someone, my standard purchase is a bunch of
flowers and a box of chocolates for females, and a bottle of wine for the blokes!
My problem is that I don’t know and can’t guess what
would be a good gift for a particular person.
So I resort to a ‘One-size-fits-all’ approach. Flowers and chocolates, or a bottle of wine
has to do the trick, no matter who the person is!
What makes the perfect gift? What do you think would be the perfect gift
for you?
There are certain criteria that I think make a gift
perfect. These include:
It is given in love.
It is given with no strings attached.
It is something I need and can use once and then keep
on using.
It is something I enjoy.
In the Bible, St James teaches Every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17). God gives us many good gifts every day, but
at Christmas we celebrate God’s ultimate good and perfect gift to the world –
his Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the perfect gift because God gave
him. God only gives good and perfect
gifts. God’s love moved him to give us
the Gift of his Son. As that well-known
Bible verse tells us, God so loved the world that he gave his …
Son (John 3:16). We humans
didn’t and don’t have to meet certain preconditions for this Gift.
God’s Gift of Jesus is the Gift the whole human race needs. The angel described the Infant in Bethlehem’s
manger as the Saviour (Luke
2:11). Through his death and
resurrection some 30 years later, Jesus saves us from our common enemies: Satan, death and hell.
Our sinful condition remains with us as long as we
live on this earth. As a result, there
are good things we should do, but don’t.
There are bad things we do, but shouldn’t! For this reason, we receive God’s gift of
forgiveness through Jesus, not just once, but repeatedly throughout our life.
This Gift is the source of true and lasting joy – joy
for now, and for eternity. The Christmas
angel’s message was: I
bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people (Luke
2:10).
God’s Gift to you
of his Son Jesus Christ is your perfect Gift.
Receive this Gift and celebrate it this Christmas, and into the New Year,
and beyond!
Pastor Andrew Bettison
Chaplain, Lutheran Homes, Hope Valley,
South Australia abettison@lhi.org.au