The Perfect Gift - YOU!

      I am a horrible gift giver.  Brain freeze takes over when faced with choosing a present for someone.  It is as if  I don't know the person.  It doesn't matter the occasion: wedding, graduation, birthday, anniversary, house warming, going away party, Christmas, etc..  The more I care about the person, the more I stress.  The stress comes as a result of having failed miserably with past gifts.  Example:  My wife sings like a lark and loves to write songs.  I've got the perfect gift, I thought to myself.  Get her a guitar, she can learn a few chords and that will help her music world.  Not interested.  Bad gift, expensive, but bad.  I wanted her to learn to play; she didn't want her to play.
      On the other hand, there is nothing like knocking it out of the park with a gift.  That gift that exceeds all wishes and expectations.  Now I have to be honest, I can count on one hand the number of gifts that fit that description and have enough fingers left to eat an overstuffed sandwich.  But one such occasion, I will never forget.  My daughter Cassidy was four years old and really getting into the Christmas gift thing pretty big.  They learn so young.  She got her usual barrage of  toys, dress up stuff, stuffed animals, electronic games and then the big surprise.  Drum roll please!  We wrapped up a pet carrier, sized for a small dog.  To a four year old, that was a pretty big package and big packages at Christmas excited them!  Here were her words, "A puppy box for when I get a puppy!"  Okay smarty pants, you are getting ahead of me.  What she didn't know was in the back of the kennel still shielded by wrapping paper was a 4 lb poodle pup.  Up popped the pup and a four year old little girl went nuts.  The perfect gift:  Cassidy's Christmas Angel was her name.  We called her Angel.  I will never forget that moment as long as I live.
     I can think of a lot of gifts I've seen exchanged around the Christmas tree.  Many of them very nice, but its those perfect gifts that turn into perfect moments, never to be forgotten.  The expressions on the faces are priceless and certainly treasured.
     There are two others I know of that gave gifts that will never be forgotten.  Their gifts have put smiles on peoples faces that were drowning in despair, mended broken hearts and gave purpose and meaning to directionless lives.  They were gifts that were both desired and needed.  These gifts exceeded all expectations.  They were expensive gifts, one of a kind.  They were chosen out of love.  God gave His only begotten Son and His Son gave His life.  Two costly perfect gift.  Our lives are full a good gifts from heaven.  Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father above.
      God gave us Jesus.  Wow!  Jesus gave us Himself.  Wow!  But there is another gift I want to mention.  It is a gift that God is going to give Jesus.  If there ever was the perfect gift giver, it was God and He is not done yet.
      Jude verse 1 ends with the phrase, "kept for Jesus".  Wow! What an awesome thought.  God kept us, preserved us , prepared us so that one day He will be able to present us to Jesus as a prize.  You and I will be a gift to the one who gave His life for us.  God must love us a lot the consider us worthy to be a gift to give His own Son.  He is after all, the perfect gift giver.  Live your life so you will be well wrapped ready to be a present.  It is a part of the journey and I want you to JOIN THE JOURNEY!