Gift – The voluntary transference of property without anything in return. A faculty, power, or quality bestowed; a virtue or endowment looked on as an emanation from heaven.
(Oxford Dictionary)
A gift is the voluntary transference of property without anything in return. Each year at Christmas time we begin to search for the right gifts for those who are close to us, but with that definition are we really giving gifts? Christmas is a traditional time of giving, but we must remember that a true gift expects nothing in return. We must understand that the gifts of the Christmas and birthday sort are the acknowledgement of the worth and value of our relationship to the receiver only if we do not expect quid pro quo.
To better understand the concept of gift, we must look to God’s gift to us. He created us and gifted us with this world, and when we rejected it he still loved us and gifted us further. From the time we rejected his gift, he began to try to win us back. He was determined to recreate his creation. When all else had failed he came himself and offered us a path of grace. God is the ultimate example of a gift giver. The quotes and scriptures I have published in this piece examine the many facets of the word.
We are gifted with the ability to do certain things in life. There are those who can make beautiful music or paint beautiful pictures, and others who can write prose and poetry. All these and more are natural gifts which were bestowed upon us by God when he created us. We would do well to be grateful to him for what he has given us and use our talents and gifts for the betterment of his creation.
There are other gifts that are not as easily visible or understood. Paul said to the Corinthian church,”And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.” Simply put, God has equipped each one of us with the gift we need to be his partners in the salvation of his creation. This is most “other worldly” to think that God has given you something of himself that resides in you in a special way, and giving it with the free will to exercise it or to neglect it. He did give us a gift without expecting anything in return.
That is our challenge when we give to others. We are to learn to give without expectation of return. Just as we are overwhelmed by the grace of God, it is our hope that as we show our love to others it will be returned. That is the greatest gift of all.
Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.
― Mary Oliver
May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.
― J.R.R. Tolkien
What you are is God’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.
― Hans Urs von Balthasar
Everyone has a gift for something, even if it is the gift of being a good friend.
― Marian Anderson
A friend is a gift you give yourself.
― Robert Louis Stevenson
My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.
― Jim Valvano
Every problem is a gift – without problems we would not grow.
― Anthony Robbins
You can do something extraordinary, and something that a lot of people can’t do. And if you have the opportunity to work on your gifts, it seems like a crime not to. I mean, it’s just weakness to quit because something becomes too hard.
― Morgan Matson
Buy a gift for a dog, and you’ll be amazed at the way it will dance and swerve its tail, but if don’t have anything to offer to it, it won’t even recognize your arrival; such are the attributes of fake friends.
― Michael Bassey Johnson
A wonderful gift may not be wrapped as you expect.”
― Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The great art of giving consists in this the gift should cost very little and yet be greatly coveted, so that it may be the more highly appreciated.
― Baltasar Gracian
The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof, lie detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have had it.
― Ernest Hemingway
Being present to yourself in love and with kindness is the ultimate gift.
― Amy Leigh Mercree
As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
~~~1 Peter 4:10
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
~~~Romans 12:6
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.
~~~1 Corinthians 12:4
For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
~~~2 Timothy 1:6
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
~~~Ephesians 4:7
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
~~~Romans 6:23
Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
~~~James 1:17
Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery.
~~~1 Timothy 4:14
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
~~~John 4:10
And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
~~~1 Corinthians 12:28
Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.
~~~Psalm 127:3
Lord, The greatest gift you have given me is yourself. Now I implore you to give me the gift of giving to others in the manner you have given to me. With that gift I can begin to set the world right. Allow me to be your servant of giving, so that I may help spread joy and happiness to the world. In some small measure, help it to become what you intended it to be.
Amen
A Pastor's Thoughts 