Not At All Stingy

            Christmas day is almost upon us once again, less than three weeks away, where has the year gone. The streets are full of shoppers, traffic jams at every mall entrance, and the police department is doing their very best to keep the traffic flowing on the street outside of these consumer wonderlands. Inside the busiest malls it is sheer mayhem, people scurrying from boutique to boutique trying to buy the perfect gift for every person on their shopping list. It is like a carnival in there, bumper car city, as person after person bumps into every shopping cart they pass, I cannot see an apologetic soul anywhere. Nonetheless, when the shopping is all said and done, it makes people happy to be able to present the fruits of their battle, in the endless line-ups, to the little faces that look like these are the very first gifts they have ever received. Most people like to give gifts, it brings joy to their heart to give, this is why people go through the frustration of the crowds every year at this time, endorphins are released throughout the brain giving the shopper a shopping euphoria with every gift tossed into the cart, knowing that each gift will bring joy to the person it is intended for.  

            God likes to give gifts too; he is not the stingy and angry old man that many people associate him with. On the contrary, this picture of him could not be farther from the truth, he is the embodiment of pure love, full of mercy and kindness, and extremely generous. The age factor that many pin to him can be called pure ignorance, where do the intellectuals come up with this idea that picture him as an old man, some grandfather like figure; he is not old in the least. No age can be ascribed to Gods person because there is no duration of time in his world, his world is in the spiritual dimension, it is called eternity. Eternity is not governed by the duration of time, because time is structured only for this physical realm, time is in its own dimension just as the spiritual world has its own dimension. Since there is no duration of time in eternity this means that God never ages, he is neither young nor old; this is not hard to understand.  

            I am quite fond and drawn to the letter written to the Ephesians, transcribed by the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as Paul followed the lead of the Spirit, as he plunged—albeit carefully—through the course set before him. The apostle recorded some important issues that pertain to the Body of Christ that were embedded into his heart by the Spirit; he even recorded some of them as prayer. His prayers coincide with the heart of God, revealing the many virtues of Gods character, and one virtue is abundantly noticeable revealing that God is extremely generous to those who belong to him, those who are faithful in Christ.

            God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, loves us; in case you have some misplaced notion and think otherwise (2:4). When we were dirty rotten scoundrels, plotting out a course that was headed for destruction, deviating from the truth, the Father then gave us life and joined us together with Christ (2:5). Do you or I deserve this pardon and subsequent gift of loving kindness from him, I am sure we do not, but he gave it to us anyways. The Lord has blessed us, not that he is going to bless us, but he has already, and what greater blessing can you receive than blessings from God. He has given to us blessings that are conceived in the spiritual dimension, the heavenly realm, not just a partial blessing but every spiritual blessing that originates in Christ, his only begotten son (1:3). Even before he created Adam, the first man, before he formed heaven and earth by the power of his word, he predestined every person who would believe in him and adopted them as sons, through his son, Jesus the Christ (1:4-5). What a gift! To choose us to have life in him, to be holy and blameless, just like his only begotten son. Is this gift not far greater than the latest electronic gadget that so many are hoping they will get under the Christmas tree this year, how can anyone compare the two? Sometimes people are so spiritually dull!

            God has chosen us, adopted us as his sons, because this is what he desires, this is what gives him pleasure (1:5b). This act of loving kindness brings praise to the greatness of his grace; he has made it possible for us to be accepted into a righteous relationship with his beloved son (1:6). Our sins are forgiven; we have been redeemed from the evil one by the power of the resurrected Christ, by his atoning sacrifice, because of the immense richness of Gods grace, his loving kindness (1:7). Does this sound like the actions of an angry and stingy old man?