Gifts Made by Hands

Key Verse: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13 (CSB)

I love having gifts under my tree each year with my name on them.  I  hope that don’t make me sound too self-centered. 

I wish I was one of those people that can honestly say for them it is all about giving to others at Christmas. But if I am to be really truthful I am still a big kid at heart. I love giving to others but I like getting a few gifts under the tree for myself.  There, I said that out loud.  

I love opening those special gifts that have been hand picked out just for me from the people who know me and care about me. The gifts that come from my family and special friends.  The gifts given because they want me to know how they feel about me. They don’t have to be anything expensive just personalized. 

My mom got me a gift like that last year. She decided to start me a quilt a couple months before Christmas and worked tirelessly to finish it. She put the last stitches on it early in the morning of Christmas Eve. 

It wasn’t so much that it was a beautiful quilt that made it special.  What made it special was to know my mom made it out of love with her very hands.  Hands that have been painfully affected over the years with arthritis and yet she used them willfully and lovingly to make this quilt for me. This quilt is one my most prized personalized gifts I have received over the years. 

But there is another very special personalized gift I  have to bear mention of. It also was chosen for me with much love. The gift is the wonderful gift of salvation that Jesus gave to me. It came wrapped with a personalized card that read “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13  (CSB) A gift that was wrapped up with so much love and grace.  This special gift has never lost it’s shine or faded in color.  Instead I grow to love it more with each passing year.  

Such a valuable gift that wasn’t set aside for just the well deserving or those of special privilege.  It wasn’t put in a special case reserved only for people who had enough money to be able to afford it but it was offered to the lowliest of sinners and the most undeserving among us. A special gift specially crafted from Jesus’ own nail scarred hands.

 I am reminded this holiday season that I am fully known, called by name and deliberately sought out. I am included in the invitations of hope and restoration offered to “My servant Jacob”, welcomed to come find provision in the fields of grace offered to Ruth, and  offered living water from the same eternal well that changed the Samaritan woman’s life forever.  What precious and priceless gifts he has given to me over the years. 

Christmas time is centered around so many wonderful gifts but none compare to this  wonderful gift of salvation that Christ freely offers to us.  I hope you join me in taking time to reflect and celebrate God’s very special gift of love this holiday season.  We all are so undeserving of such a wonderful gift. Let us first partake of this precious personalized gift and then offer it freely to others.