UNSPEAKABLE GIFT

Over the course of our lives each of us has received many gifts, but there are only a few that really stand out in our minds and are remembered in a special way. As we think of those special gifts there are two qualities that are always present. One is that the gift met a special need, and the second is that it expressed a real understanding and appreciation of that need on the part of the giver. It might be as simple as a flower from a child ‘because you looked sad’ to something of much greater monetary value, but those two qualities were present in each case.

These two qualities have been addressed in the context of 2 Corinthians 8-9. There were saints who had needs. There were those in Macedonia who understood that and were willing to sacrifice, in spite of their own poverty, to meet those needs. So, as they gave from their hearts, the gift not only went toward meeting the needs of the recipients but also expressed the heart of the givers as well. Paul commends those who ‘first gave their own selves to the Lord’, 8. 5, and, from hearts right with God and in love to their fellow saints, gave from their hearts to meet the need.

Paul speaks of the greatest gift that met the greatest need and that is the gift of God’s own Son. Our debt of sin needed to be paid, the defilement of sin cleansed and reconciliation to an offended God effected. God who understood our great need from a heart filled with compassion, and in the riches of His grace, to meet that need emptied Heaven of its greatest treasure, His only beloved Son. He gave Himself in incarnation, death and resurrection that He might be a mediator, pay the debt of our sins, cleanse us from all defilement and bring us to God. All of our needs met in one glorious gift, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

As we ponder the unspeakable greatness of this gift our hearts are overwhelmed with the depths of His understanding and love to us and the magnitude of the sacrifice He made. How can we show our appreciation for this great gift? The hymn writer, Isaac Watts, may have said it best:

‘Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my heart my life my all’.