On my ninth or tenth birthday, I walked into my house after school & noticed my parents & two older brothers just standing around, looking at me with a strange expression of expectation. Confused & a little wary of this reception, I fled to my bedroom & closed the door. There I found that my old bedroom furniture had been replaced by a white canopy bed & a matching set fit for a princess. Meanwhile my family is standing outside my door with a tape recorder & microphone to catch my reaction. Dead silence. When they came in to see what happened, they found me in my closet sucking my thumb. (I know what you’re thinking…strange must run in the family. You wouldn’t be wrong, but we prefer to refer to ourselves as quirky.) The truth is, I loved my birthday present, but I was rendered speechless to the point of embarrassment that I was deemed worthy enough to receive such a gift & loved enough to be blessed so extravagantly.

Yet isn’t this a mere reflection of what Christ does for His children? Matthew 7:9-11 reads, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?” As much as I love to give gifts, I could never outgive God. A two-minute search of Scripture shows us that God gives us many things: ability, breath, delight, encouragement, endurance, food, freedom, grace, happiness, His Son, the Holy Spirit, knowledge, life, light, love, peace, possessions, power, rain, rest, self-discipline, sight, songs, strength, tasks, understanding, victory, wealth & wisdom. This is by no means an exhaustive list. But it is not just about what He gives us, but how. Christ is not only a generous giver, but an intentional, intuitive, & consistent one. James 1:17 tells us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” God knows what we want & more importantly, what we need, even more than we do. Christ assures us, “I do not give to you as the world gives” [John 14:27].

So what is the point of this every-day-is-Christmas existence we have with God? Is it to bring us joy? Is it to fill us with his goodness? Well yes, actually. “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” [I Timothy 1:14]. However, God does not want us to simply sit back, soak up the love & get fat on his blessings. He desires that we share those very gifts. Our speaking on the gifts of God leads us to hope as we face the beautiful reality that God is doing a work in us.

If we are being honest though, how many of us feel less like a spiritually-equipped saint & more like my ten-year-old self who ran into a closet because she was too embarrassed to embrace a gift so lovingly given? How many of us do not feel worthy of the gifts that God desires to shower upon us? On my own personal shame journey, I have found that the only true Source of validation is through Jesus Christ. “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us, with all wisdom & understanding” [Ephesians 1:7-8]. His acceptance of us is so pure, intense, unconditional & beautiful that we must avert our eyes because we feel so damaged, dirty & unworthy. But He longs to give us back our beauty! Not because we deserve it, but because that is what we were created for. He wants to take us back to that imprint of humanity at conception that shows we are made in the image of God. When we allow the gifts of God to radiate through us, we become beautiful gifts that glorify God. We become beacons of the hope we want to speak on when we fully step into the unSPEAKable gifts we have been given.

What would it look like in your life to step into the unSPEAKable gifts that God has given you?

During this season of Christmas, may we experience a fresh heart of wonder & awe at God’s gift of unfathomable love–the gift of his son sent as a child to redeem us. May we never lose sight of Christ’s sacrificial gift of love in the manger and on the cross so that we could also become heirs with Jesus.

For further study on UnSPEAKable Gifts:

• Luke 11:11-13
• 2 Corinthians 9:8-9
• Romans 12:6
• 1 Corinthians 12
• Romans 11:29
• 1 John 3:1

Special shout out to our very own Linda Verhulst for this blog contribution!