Woman to Woman

This months article:

The Gift of Giving

Sis. Deborah Mullins
Quartz Hill church of Christ

We, as Christians, have the profound blessing of receiving many gifts from God. The gift of His love in the form of His promise of salvation and the knowledge of how to redeem that gift is our most precious gift of all. When we think of gifts in the world, we think of occasions when our family and friends gather to honor us for our birthday, anniversary, Christmas, or some special occasion like a wedding or birth of a child. How great is the gift that God has given us in comparison! However, we have another great gift, that is the gift that we have of giving to others.

By Jesus’ example we know that He came from humble beginnings and worked with His family in His father’s carpentry business. In that way He honored His earthly father and mother. But there came a time as He became an adult man that He began His heavenly father’s business--that of giving the plan of salvation to the world. He began to give to others the bread of life that sustained them through this world, so that they could be transformed in the next world, if we were to follow His commandments. In Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus tells us of the two great commandments that we are to follow--to love God with all of ourselves and to love our neighbors as ourselves. In that way we are to give them as much of whatever that they need as we can; the most important gift that we can give them, though, is to give them the bread of eternal life: to give them the truth of what the plan of salvation is. The next most important gift is to see that they have everything that they need to survive in this world both physically and spiritually.

In the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew 22, the servants were told to go out to the highway and “gather together all they found, both evil and good.” The king did not ask only his friends, his business associates or the people who would be politically correct to invite. As long as his guests followed the proper rules of dress and behavior they were welcomed with open arms. How quickly we forget this example when asked to give something to a person whom we don’t know, who may be dirty or unattractive. Are we not commanded to love our neighbor as ourselves? When we need help the most, wouldn’t we welcome any help that comes our way?

When Jesus cured the ten lepers, as told in Luke 17:11-19, Jesus knew what they needed physically and gave the gift of cleansing to them. However, it was only to the one who returned to glorify and thank Jesus that the gift of faith was granted and the gift of spiritual healing was given. Jesus gave freely from His gift of healing, without predetermining who deserved it most, knowing that only one would return to thank Him. What a great example! We, as Christians, have the power to share God’s gift of the plan of salvation to anyone who would care to know it. We are commanded to share it and are privileged to be able to do so.

We have been given a great gift ourselves, and we are commanded to give the same to our neighbors, as we have been given. If no one had shared the truth with us, would we have this opportunity now? How blessed we are to have the opportunity to share whatever we have--money, food, clothes, shelter--and the most blessed gift, that of His plan of salvation. Let’s spread it to everyone without question or hesitation.

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