It's only a
keychain. Five little blocks held together by a shoelace. My daughter gave it
to me years ago when she was seven. Today the lace is frayed and the blocks are
chipped, but they spell a message that never grows old: “I ♥ DAD”, said a
friend.
The most
precious gifts are determined not by what went into them, but
by who they are from. Ask any parent who ever received a
bouquet of dandelions from a chubby hand. The best gifts are valued not in money
but in love.
Zechariah
understood that. We hear it in his prophetic song as he praised God for giving
him and his wife Elizabeth their son John when they were well past their
childbearing years (Luke 1:67–79). Zechariah rejoiced because John was to be a
prophet who would proclaim God’s greatest gift to all people—the coming
Messiah: “Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about
to break upon us” (Luke 1:78 nlt). Those words point to a gift given with so
much love that it will even “shine on those living in darkness and in the
shadow of death” (1:79).
The sweetest
gift we can receive is God's tender mercy—the forgiveness of our sins through
Jesus. That gift cost Him dearly at the cross, but He offers it freely out of
His deep love for us.
Jesus is both the Gift and the Giver. (ODB)
