The Value Of A Gift

While rounding a corner last week, I observed a youth, about fourteen, toss a full container of a soft drink across the road in front of me, the contents spilling in a church parking lot. My initial thought was, how little his regard was for other peoples’ property. What really bothered me though was the lack of value in something not earned. That part of his lunch was paid for by his parents, and they had to earn the resources to provide for him, yet he didn’t care. After all, he didn’t pay for it, someone else did. So, to him, it held little or no value.

This made me reflect on the same behavior in many parts of our world. Is it human nature these days to discard things so easily? Have we become a society of ungrateful people to the point that we think it’s better to trample over someone than it is to stop and lift them up? Are we now a people who believe we are entitled? Do we occupy space at our workplace or church service and expect to somehow be rewarded because we show up?

My point is this. When we work to earn anything, we place more value on it than if we are gifted with something. It’s easier to leave food on a plate if someone else paid for it. Even Jesus, dying on a cross for us has been slighted, and devalued over time, especially in the Western world. The more we have, it seems, the less we care. We have been given a gift. We have done nothing to earn it, and there is nothing we could do to earn it. That gift is God’s grace. He offered, and gave His son, Jesus to the world as He brought a message of a new covenant with God. He came to live and die among us as a man, yet He offered us a way to the Father, paid for by His own sacrifice. All He asks is that we believe in and follow Him. We need not toil at a job daily to receive Him, simply ask and receive. Yes, my friends, Jesus has paid for, offered, and given the gift of eternity with Him. It is up to us to place the highest value on this gift, so we never toss it away like that discarded soft drink.

Let us all hang onto God’s promise as if we were holding our mother’s hand as she taught us to walk. That is, as tight as if our life depended on it. After all, it really does.

Mike Shindruk

www.mastershandministry.blogspot.com