The Best Gift This Christmas

  The best gift this Christmas is not one that you can wrap up. While we love to give and recieve gifts, maybe there is something more. I for one love Christmas because of- well- everything: the family, the gifts, the snow, the food, the music, the tree, the lights, and the anticipation, but also the profound analogy it resembles for us asking and receiving gifts from God. Like our parents, God may not give us what we want, but will give us what we need. However, Christmas is not just about receiving, but about giving. Should we feel like we have to give give God lots of things?
     In Psalm 40, the Psalmist is seeking in deliverance from his sin by turning to God, and then says, "In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, "Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart." Looking at the story of the Bible, we see that God never wanted empty sacrifices, however expensive or valuable the animal. He did need sacrifices in the Old Testament to shield his wrath from Israel, but he always longed for His people to desire him and obey his law from the heart.
    My brothers and I have often asked my mother what she wants for Christmas. But what she has said on more than one occasion as a response is, "I just want obedient, cheerful boys [sons] who do their chores without being asked." And of course, we often try to overlook her response for two reasons: we can't fulfill her expectations perfectly, and it would be so much easier to just get a gift and not worry about having to watch our actions. But what she wants is an open ear and obedience from a willing heart. I wonder if Christ is asking us the same thing this Christmas?
      Christ came to this earth to pay for our sin and to be that perfect sacrifice God always wanted. He did God's will. Now, with the Holy Spirit in our hearts(John 17:26), we can do His will. Be obedient to the King who wrapped himself in humanity to come and atone for our sin. That is the best gift you can give to God this Christmas.