Can you remember some of the Christmas gifts you got growing up? One that particularly sticks with me was that Man From Uncle secret agent set I got when I was about eight or nine years old.  (OK, for those of you under 50 or so, The Man from Uncle was the coolest, trendiest thing on TV in the mid-1960s when spy-themed shows were in vogue.)

But perhaps my favorite gift of all time was what Lori gave me a couple of years back:  A Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer, with attachments.  Now, understand, that  if I had given Lori a present like this, or any kind of household appliance or gadget for that matter, I would have ended up in the proverbial doghouse.  I learned early in our marriage that gifts like that, no matter how cool they seemed to me, just don’t communicate “I love you” to her.  Ask me sometime how I know.  But I love to cook and bake, and if there ever was such a thing as a “masculine kitchen appliance”, the KitchenAid is IT.  It’s big, solid, heavy and silver, and has cool attachments, which I sometimes plug in to the mixer just for the sake of it. This was a great gift and it gets of lot of use.

The gifts we like to receive, and the gifts we like to give can say a lot about who we are.

I did not become a Christian until I was 25, and my salvation experience was sudden and dramatic (which, by the way, does not make it any more valid or powerful than someone who God saves over a longer period of time by other means).  But my encounter with Jesus in our Mill Valley apartment back in 1982 resulted in an overwhelming sense of gratitude to Him for what he had done for me— dying on the cross for my sinful life so that I could partake in the gift of eternal life starting right away.  From that day forward I have always felt that because of the gift He gave me, I wanted to return the favor and give Him a gift as well.  Not because I could earn salvation, blessing or favor—that is not possible—but because I wanted to, out of gratefulness for what He did and continues to do to this day.  My life was a mess, but that day I received hope for something better.

Attempting to trap Jesus, the Pharisees asked him if it was right to pay taxes to Caesar.  Jesus, knowing their intentions, took a coin and asked them whose image and whose name it bore. They replied that of course the image and name on the coin was that of Caesar, to which Jesus replied, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” (Matthew 22:21)

Just as Caesar’s name and image was imprinted on that coin so the image and name of God is imprinted on us, his people. We belong to him, and there is no better and more secure place to be. Likewise, we are to give back to God what is God’s—our entire lives. Our gift to God is to love him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.  Not that we can earn his favor—we are already favored beyond what we can comprehend—but out of a sense of gratefulness for what he has done and continues to do on our behalf.

“But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:56-58)

May the Lord bless you with every good and perfect gift this Christmas!