The Best Gift: An Advent Meditation

I don’t like to leave things undone until the last minute…. If it’s not done early, then it’s late.

[For Christmas shopping] I prepare a thorough gift checklist in September. I write down the names of all my close family members and friends in a note on my phone and start brainstorming. October is my month for scouring the internet for fresh ideas. By the time November rolls around, I’m deep in buying mode, searching for the best deals. If I’m not finished by cyber deals week, well, I consider that a failure. Sure, there might be a straggler (I dare you to find anyone harder to buy for than my dad), but the main goal is to be 100% done by then for the purpose of appreciating everything else December has to offer.

I love giving good gifts, so the waiting period between completing my gift checklist and sharing those gifts with my friends and family is filled with eager anticipation. I wrap presents early, place them under the tree a week or two before Christmas Day, and encourage my sons to admire and shake and even guess what could be inside. The anticipation builds until the glorious morning of unwrapping and enjoying.

RECOGNIZING THE VALUE OF THE GIFT

Can you imagine the care that God, our heavenly Father who gives good gifts, took in preparing to give the most perfect gift of all (Matt. 7:11)? He made a checklist of the perfect Messiah and even shared it with his people in countless prophecies and pictures presented in the Old Testament. God always knew the perfect fulfillment of his checklist would come in the form of his only Son.

The Israelites knew the gift was coming. They should have been anticipating it, but when Jesus finally came, most of God’s people weren’t thrilled. Many people acted like God had missed the mark, and many failed to recognize the gift of Jesus at all. They were spiritually blind to how God was fulfilling the checklist begun way back in Genesis 3 (Mark 4:12).

But the unfolding narrative of Scripture was never just a story about the Israelites or even merely a story about humanity. It was a story about God and his glorious path for rebuilding our brokenness through a perfect Savior.

In this season of Advent, we look back and remember the birth of Jesus. If we want to truly celebrate the gift of our Savior, we must recognize his value. He is no spur-of-the-moment gift or impulse purchase. He is the fulfillment of every prophecy and promise of God.

LOOKING FORWARD WITH LONGING

In the season of Advent, we are not anticipating just a beginning but also an ending. Jesus’ life on earth and subsequent resurrection ushered in the final stage of the story that began with God’s glorious creation. The plunge into the darkness of the fall hinged on redemption through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And we now anticipate with hope the final consummation where all God’s children will again live in unbroken relationship with him in the new heavens and new earth.

Advent is the story of the already, but not yet.

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