The Best Gift
I am not a Barbara Streisand fan, but I grew up listening to her Christmas album. On that record, she included a song titled “The Best Gift” in which she goes on to describe the best gift that she ever got. At the end, she reveals that this gift was “a tiny newborn child.” (If you need me to explain what a record is, let me know.) 😉
Although I have received a lot of nice gifts in my 45 3/4 years of life, the best gift I ever received was the gift of salvation, made possible by Jesus Christ coming to earth and being willing to die a horrendous death on a cross. If you have never studied crucifixion and why it was the Roman’s choice of death, I encourage you to do so. It isn’t a pleasant study but it makes Jesus’ death even more meaningful. It wasn’t like a lethal injection where you die in a matter of minutes. Rather, it was a form of torture in which criminals died a slow, painful, suffocating death.
I realize that it’s not even Palm Sunday yet but I think it’s a good time to begin to think of Christ’s sacrifice, to thank Him for choosing us to be His children, and to ask Him how we can serve Him better.
I started this back in December around Christmastime but I think it’s perfect timing to finish it now. If you take communion in the next few weeks, don’t do it out of routine. Really think about the event that you are commemorating. Picture Jesus on the cross, beaten beyond recognition, blood streaming down His body, looking at you. Then think of the things you allow in your life that is the equivalent of spitting in His face. God’s grace is not cheap. It cost Christ a lot. How can we be so selfish as to not give Him every part of our lives?
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