A Gift for Jesus

Our family has a tradition that we give gifts to Jesus on His birthday. For me, the offering of a gift to Jesus is very serious and sometimes very costly. I don't mean that I give him material goods. However, I do try to buy a little trinket to put in our Jesus Gift box so I remember each gift I have given in the past. The costly gifts are most always something I have struggled with over the past year. Jesus has usually invited me several times to let Him take control, but I have thought I could do it my way. Those gifts are the ones I am sure makes Him smile.

I have discovered that giving gifts to Jesus results in a year long experience learning and growing in the area from which the gift was given. For example, one year I gave Jesus my desire to be beautiful. It was amazing to me that He returned the gift by showing me over and over again throughout the year that He saw my beauty and He was enthralled by it! Now, I am not a fashion model, nor do I claim any magnificent physical beauty. But I wanted to be different than who I am, and so I gave it to Him. That year convinced me that Jesus thinks I am beautiful. If I am beautiful to Him then I really do own beauty inside and out! I can never outgive God!

This years gift is another costly gift, and I am struggling to pay the price. I cannot tell you the secret yet, but it is a life changing kind of gift. It is a gift that I imagine wrestling with the Lord throughout the year. But in the end, like Jacob (see Genesis 32:22-32), I want Him to win, even if it leaves me with a permanent dislocation of my life reminding me that I belong fully to Him! Pray for me that this might be done.

Lord Jesus, My Lord, My Savior, You are worthy of the best gift I could bring to You honoring Your birthday here on earth and submitting to Your lordship over my life. There are many things I could choose from because my life is filled with struggles to follow You. I do not relinquish this gift easily. I want to please You, but I have held on so long that it is very hard to let go! My desire is to let go of the gift and hold onto You until You bless me! Thank You for being patient. Thank You for completing the good work You have started in me!