My mother has always had a problem with patience at Christmas. Being alone with presents under the tree was too great a temptation. One year I bought Mom a pecan roll and wrapped it in a tennis ball can. When we opened presents, it was obvious Mom had already been into it, for a third of the pecan roll had been eaten. One year she unwrapped a gift early, tried on the white blouse and did not like the color. So, she took it back to the store and found a different blouse for a better price. With money left over she bought a pair of slippers and rewrapped both back in the box.

To discourage Mom from unwrapping her gifts early, Dad wrapped her gift thirteen times one Christmas. The day we unwrapped our gifts, Dad smiled as Mom started unwrapping her gift. Unwrapping the first layer of paper, she asked, “Charles, what have you done?” Removing the second layer, she scolded Dad, “Now, Charles, this was a waste of good paper.” When she unwrapped the third layer and came to the present, my dad shouted “Ah, ha!” as though he had caught a criminal. In a guilty tone, Mom said, “Well, I just got tired of rewrapping it.”

The greatest Christmas gift ever given is found in John 3:16. Sadly, familiarity produces forgetfulness and many have forgotten the value of the gift. Yet by unwrapping the layers of John 3:16 you see afresh the value of God’s gift. The verse reads,

For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life.

To reappraise this gift and see its fullest value, we need to do what my mom did. We need to open it up one layer at time.

A Big Gift
“For God”

The first layer of the gift reminds us that the gift is big because it comes from God. The first two words of the verse are, “For God.” Sadly, seeing God as the giver of anything has become less significant.

When my youngest son Lee was three, he was seated at a restaurant with Loree, his brother John Mark who was five, and Loree’s parents. Loree’s parents had just asked John Mark what he wanted to be when he grew up. As usual, John Mark gave a long explanation why he wanted to be an astronaut. Then they asked Lee. At three, Lee wanted to be the biggest and best at everything. When they asked Lee what he wanted to be when he grew up, in a calm confidence he answered, “I want to be God.”

What Lee said at three is what people have been saying for years. “I want to be God” is the essence of the New Age movement. These people think if they can connect with the world and others they can do anything. If the three million Israelites in Exodus 14 had held hands around the Red Sea casting positive thoughts on it, nothing would have happened. It took God to part it. If the fifteen thousand hungry people in Matthew 14 envisioned being fed with five loaves and two fish, nothing would have happened. They could have only sat and hummed all day, but still would have gone home hungry. Only God could have fed fifteen thousand with a boy’s sack lunch and have twelve basketsful left over. In a day when scientists feel smart enough to make a clone, none will ever be powerful enough to create an original. Only God can do that.

The God that can part seas with an outstretched rod, feed thousands with a sack lunch, build a universe without supplies, and create the human race from a handful of dust, has a gift for you. If a world leader gave you a gift, it would be nice. Yet when the Creator of the universe gives you a gift, it is big.

A Special Gift
“So Loved the World”

The fact that the gift is given by God makes it big, yet realizing that it was given out of love makes it special. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world….”

In the original language, the verb loved appears before the subject God in order to emphasize the depth of God’s love. God SO LOVED the world. The word for world that is used is our word for ‘cosmos.’ This reveals the breadth of God’s love. God emphatically loved everything He made. Therefore, it would take a special kind of love for God to regain that which has been taken from Him.

In Genesis 1, God created the world in six days. After each of the first five days, God evaluated His work and said, “It is good.” When all was finished on the sixth day, Genesis 1:31 records, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” It was very good until Adam and Eve’s sin robbed God of what He wanted, a relationship with His creation. Therefore, it would require a special love on God’s part to get it back.

God’s love would have to be persistent for the ignorant of the world to hear about Him. According to the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, around 1.7 billion of our world have little or no knowledge of Jesus Christ. They remain ignorant, but God’s love remains persistent. Furthermore, God’s love would have to be selfless for the indignant of the world to accept Him. Still today, countries refuse missionaries, governments legislate against the gospel, courts imprison believers, and some are still martyred for following Jesus. Yet the more the world fights to keep God silent the more God fights to be heard. God’s love is broad enough to be persistent, deep enough to be selfless. God’s love will do what it takes to show the ignorant and indignant of the world that He cares. That kind of love makes God’s gift special.

An Expensive Gift
“That He Gave”

Love is special because love produces actions long before actions produce love. And when love produces an act, the act is usually expensive. As Billy Graham once said, “True love is always costly.” This is true of God’s gift. It was a big gift given out of love with a high price tag. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.”

God was not surprised by the cost. Seven hundred years before Jesus’ crucifixion, God described the gruesome details to Isaiah in Isaiah 53. As a toddler in Bethlehem, Jesus received three gifts from the magi. The strangest of the three was myrrh. This was an ointment placed on bodies before burial. Even in Bethlehem the shadow of the cross lay across Jesus’ crib. In John 10:11, Jesus acknowledged that He knew the cost of God’s gift was expensive. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

Only those willing to give their life understand the expense of the gift. On June 18, 1940, The Times of London published the last letter a young airman wrote to his mother. Pilot Officer V. A. Rosewarne wrote:

The universe is so vast and so ageless
that the life of one man can only be justified
by the measure of his sacrifice.¹

Take a moment to measure the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. God took the life of one to save the world. That is unimaginable. Furthermore, the one killed was innocent while the rest of the world was insolent. That is unthinkable. Finally, the one killed was God’s only son. That’s unbelievable. Though unimaginable, unthinkable, and unbelievable, the sacrifice by God remains unequalled. It was an expensive gift God was willing to give to reclaim the world He loved.

A Risky Gift
“That Whoever”

Mom had to go through thirteen layers of wrapping to get to the gift. We have had to go through our own layers. We have learned that God’s gift was big because it was from God, a special gift because it was given out of love, and expensive because it cost God the life of His only son. Yet for God’s gift to be so big, special, and expensive, God also knew it would be risky. You see this in the full reading of John 3:16:

“For God so loved the world
that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish
but have eternal life.”

The risk of God’s gift is seen in the word “whoever.” God sent and sacrificed His only son without any guarantee that people would see Jesus as His gift and choose eternal life.

God’s gift was big, special, expensive, and risky. But to God, it was worth it all if the risk paid off for you. Are you among the “whoever?” Do you believe Jesus is God’s one and only Son? Do you believe Jesus’ perfect life and sacrificial death paid the price for your sin? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and know you have eternal life? If you are among the “whoever,” then to God, His gift was worth the risk.

What Are You Doing
With God’s Gift?

The question God could ask you is, “What are you doing with my gift?” Keep that in mind as you read the following story I wrote as a tribute to my son Lee when he was four years old.

THE TROPHY
by Mark Becton

We say that Christmas is for children.
    We say it because of the joy we parents receive
        from the presents that we give them.
But, there will be a Christmas my wife and I will never forget
    all because of our four-year-old son
        and the present we received from him.
However, you'll have to step into the mind of a second child
    to understand where this story begins.

If you, too, are a second child,
    you know exactly how our four-year-old felt.
        It's an overwhelming feeling to stand and look
            at all the trophies on your older brother's shelf.
So, our little red-head was waiting for the day
    he could hold a trophy that bore his own name.
        And, that day finally came
            when Lee played his last soccer game.

After a pizza party with his team, he brought his trophy home.
    It never left his hand from the party, to the car, to his room
        because Lee finally had a trophy he could call all his own.
And even that evening when I kissed him good-night,
    I found Lee sleeping with his trophy
        wrapped in his arm, pulled close to his side.

Now, Lee received his trophy the first of November.
    Then, he gave us our gift in the middle of December.
You see, we learned of a family
    who was not going to have a good Christmas.
        A fire took their home and everything with it.

My wife Loree and a group of women were collecting gifts.
    So, Loree was sitting at the table going over a list.
There, she realized the family had children
    around the age of our boys.
        Loree thought our sons might want to give the children
            some of their toys.

Now, children are not ones to give up their toys with ease,
    so this request would take more than a simple "Please."
Loree called the boys to the kitchen
    and told them what she had planned.
        She told them in a way she hoped they could understand.

She said,
"A fire burned a family's home and took everything they had.
    There was a Mom, Grandmother, and three children who don’t have a Dad.
        We are collecting gifts for them so their Christmas won't be so sad.
Boys, I'm thinking of the mother and grandmother
    and am looking for things that I can give them.
        Why don't you go in your rooms
            and look for something special you can give the children?"

The boys went to their rooms and Loree returned to her list.
    After a few minutes, she went to the bedroom to survey the pile of gifts.
When she saw the pile on her bed, Loree came to a complete stop.
    A lump rose in her throat when Loree saw Lee's trophy resting on top.
She called Lee to the room, and as soon as he walked in
    Loree picked up the trophy and asked,
        "Lee, is this what you wanted to give?"
"Yes, Momma,"he said, as a smile spread his red freckles.
    "I thought if the boy my age had a trophy
        it would make his Christmas special."

And that December, our Lee gave Loree and me
    a Christmas gift that's here to stay.
        He gave us a reminder that Christmas is about unconditional love
            and giving your most prized possession away.
You see, that is what God did several Christmases ago.
    It is the story about the birth of Jesus that many of us know.

And that Christmas, Lee's gift allowed God's gift
    to become more special to this husband and wife.
        It was through Lee's gift we remembered the verse,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son,
    that whoever believes in him shall not perish,
        but have everlasting life.

It's humbling when a story you've heard countless times before
    comes to life because of the innocence and love of a
        red-headed, freckled-faced soccer player who's four.

©Mark Becton

God gave his most prized possession so that you and all the world could have a relationship with Him. What would you give so that others would have the gift that you have received from God? Let me make the following suggestions.

Give Physically
Romans 10:15 states the obvious. God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ will not be received until it is given. People cannot accept it until they first hear it, and they will never hear it unless believers are willing to go and share it. With 95% of the world still lost without a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, God’s gift needs couriers. God needs you to take His gift to the world. He needs some who will give themselves physically and go.

Give Prayerfully
The Apostle Paul knew that God had called him to go and share God’s gift. Yet as he went, he knew he could not do it alone. In most of his letters, he asked fellow believers to pray for him. Today, missionaries around the world continue to ask for prayer. They serve in areas that have been deaf and defiant to God for centuries. They realize that only prayer will make a difference. Partner with a missionary. Pray for them and the people group they are trying to reach. God may not call you to go, but you can still have a part through prayer.

Give Financially
Finally, you can give financially so that those God calls can go. According to the International Mission Board, God is calling more to go than at any time in history. Yet the obedience by those who go must be matched by the obedience of others to give. They cannot go unless others give.

What would you give so the world could know God the way you do? God gave out of love. And, though His gift was expensive and risky, He still gave. Whether it be physically, prayerfully, or financially, the least we can do is give the way God did, so others can know Him the way we do.

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[1] Robert C. Shannon, 1000 Windows, (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1997).