the bethlehem discovery

I spoke with a young man recently who was interested in Christianity. His greatest stumbling block was not being able to comprehend how God could love and forgive him. You see, he had done so much "bad" stuff in his life, had been involved in so much of which he was now ashamed, had let down and alienated so many people, had lived a life of debauchery that the idea of being forgiven of all that by the God's grace was inconceivable. He told me that it wasn't fair that he could have done all he had done and then tell God that he believed in him, was sorry for his actions and that he would give him his life...and that God would forgive him. It wasn't fair.

We talked a lot about these ideas and others. And I told him that he was right. It isn't fair. It absolutely isn't. But giving gifts isn't about being fair (or at least it shouldn't be). It's about love. It's about generosity. About grace. And it's about the motive and heart of the giver. When a gift is rightly given, it's based the heart and desire of the giver, not on the worth of the recipient. At Christmas we recognize that God displayed his grace, his generosity and love by sending his son as a gift to us. He would be our Savior, the one who would save us from our sins. He would be God with us, Emmanuel. It was never designed to be fair. It was all about grace.

The only catch with a gift is that it must be received to be of any value. A gift offered but refused, or taken but never opened is pointless. The whole process requires a connection, a relationship of sorts, some response on the part of the one on the receiving end. It's not enough to intellectually understand what God has done, or to agree with him in principle. A gift has been given. That gift must be received through a personal connection. And I saw that again as I read the Christmas story the other day, and thought about the response of the shepherds following their wondrous encounter with the baby Jesus:

The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:20

Those men had been told about God's gift, but the change took place when they, by faith, chose to interact with the gift that had been given. Their experience (what they heard and saw) validated what they'd been told, and that made the life-changing difference in each of them.

Remember, God loved us so much that he did NOT send a treatise, a manual, or an organization. His offering was a person- a gift requiring interaction, connection, and relationship in order to be received. When we respond relationally to what we've understood intellectually, we discover the great joy and purpose of what God has for us. Because it's never been about fair.

And aren't you glad for that?