TERRIE TODD
A rejected gift

Have you ever given a gift that was refused? I don’t recall that it’s happened to me, but it happened recently to my husband. A stranger did Jon a big favour that helped him to attain a goal he’d had for some time. To thank the man, Jon arranged for a gift certificate from a nice restaurant to be sent to him, along with a thankyou card. About a week later, the gift certificate came back in the mail, along with a note explaining that the card was “payment” enough and that the man was happy to have been of help. I’m not sure how Jon felt, but, having helped him prepare the card, I couldn’t help feeling a little rejected. I felt sorry for this person who, it seemed, hadn’t learned the art of graciously accepting a gift.

This really got me to thinking. If I could feel miffed about this, how much more must it hurt God when His gift is rejected by us? He gave the greatest sacrifice possible, out of the purest love possible, and yet so many refuse it. “No thanks, I don’t need it,” people say. “I can see where it’s helpful for some people, and if it works for you, great, but I’m just not into that.” Not into that? The God of the universe, the One who made you and knows you intimately, sent His Son Jesus to earth to die for you so that you can know eternal life instead of eternal death, and you’re “not into it”? This is hard to fathom – or is it?

All of us are born with proud hearts that don’t want to admit need. We disappoint God over and over again when we try to improve on His gift by doing things our own way or by thinking we can do things to make Him love us more. How foolish. How much better it would be to simply open our hands and our hearts, receive His love and express our thanks back to Him. It is the longing of God’s heart that we human beings have a loving relationship with Him, and, although we may go through much of life without recognizing it, it is also the deepest longing of our own souls.