Background Scriptures: Matthew 25: 14-30; Luke 19: 12-27 Meditation Scriptures: Psalms 24; Psalms 103; Psalms 116; Ephesians 4: 7-16
Little three-year-old David eagerly tore into the small package handed to him that Christmas morning. It was a set of matchbook race cars given to him by a friend of the family. When asked if he wouldn't like to call and thank his friend for the gift, the boy answered "No!", and when asked why, he stated defiantly, "...cause it's mine now!"
How many of us have attitudes like David's toward the gifts our Heavenly Father bestows upon us? Are we like the man who, year after year, steadfastly refuses to open any gifts on Christmas morning? Instead he hoards the packages for days, weeks, and sometimes even months, until he decides it's time to open his Christmas boxes. Until then, he relishes the idea that someone gave him something, and no one can tell him what to do or when to open something that belongs to him. So what if he goes without something he really wants or needs, when all the while it's waiting there in a corner, in an unopened box. Somehow, he misses his own point every year. Someone gave him something. Is anything ever really ours in the first place?
I am reminded of an article about "gifts" I read a few years back in Our Daily Bread. The article described how we sometimes disregard God's gifts in much the same way we treat those gifts we get from distant relatives, or the ones we get when we pull names during the holidays. You know the ones. They don't quite "go with" any of the other "stuff" we have, or we don't quite know what to do with them. So they go into a closet somewhere, buried beneath the extra blankets and the emergency batteries. How embarrassed are we, then, when the person who gave the gift drops by and notices that his gift is not prominently displayed in our home. And we should feel bad. Though we may not think much of the gift, we do not know what love and attention the giver put into selecting and wrapping it, how much happiness it brought to them to give it to us, and with what anticipation the giver awaits to see how we will use it.
It is the same way with God's gifts to us. Perhaps we have let a talent escape us through years of neglect. Maybe it is a special ability of ours which might greatly help in a particular ministry within the church, but we have chosen not to do it because it doesn't fit in with who we think we are. Maybe we just have other plans for our lives. Or perhaps we've been so abundantly blessed that we're a little overwhelmed by it all, and we simply don't know where to start! Whatever the case, to God, a gift ignored is a gift refused. It is a cold slap in the face to the One who gave us the very best gift of all, His only Son, Jesus. After all He has done for us, what have we done for Him lately?
As we make our resolutions for the New Year, let us take some time to reflect on our unopened and unused gifts, and let us resolve to make better use of them in the future. Recover lost talents. Discover new ones. Cultivate them, then offer them back to God in ways that will honor and please Him. That's the best way to praise, worship, and thank the One to Whom all things belong, and from Whom all gifts and blessings flow.