Gift Giving

If you were going to receive an unlimited gift card to any store or retailer of your choice, what would you choose?

For me, it's a toss-up between a local day spa (so I can get weekly massages and pedicures) and Amazon.com, where I can get everything else.

I know that some people are anti-gift cards, but, personally, I rather like them. I don't think they're impersonal or an easy way out of gift buying (although that may indeed be the case). It's fun to get a gift card to a favorite store, go shopping and pick out just what I want. No worries about having to return a gift because it's the wrong size or not my style.

Of course, gifts are not necessarily meant to be exactly what the receiver wants. Rather, they are meant to be what the giver wants to give. Now, I've received many presents over the years--for birthdays, Christmas, graduations, etc.--that were not what I would have chosen for myself. Some gifts were not my style. Then there were other gifts that were more extravagant than I would have bought for myself. I've even received some gifts that I didn't know I wanted (maybe didn't even know existed), but once I got them, I couldn't imagine not having them.

God is not in the business of handing us gift cards and telling us to pick out the life or blessings that we want. Truth be told, most of us would be thrilled if He did that. But if He DID allow us to choose our own blessings, I think that, rather than get greedy and pick out too much, most of us would pick out far less than what God intended.

Even the "gifts" that He gives us that seem like bad gifts at the time turn out to be good. Sometimes He withholds one gift that we really want in order to give us a better gift down the road.

When someone gives me a gift, even if it's one that I'm not thrilled with, I smile graciously and say thank you. And yet, how often do I react graciously to the gifts that God gives me? How many times do I forget to thank Him? Too often, I'm afraid, I find myself immediately thinking of how I can return this "gift" and try to get Him to give me what I really want. Talk about ingratitude.

Although I may not understand God's gift-giving decision making process at the time I receive His gift, I know that ALL gifts that He gives are for our good.

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matthew 7:7-11)