The Giver

I received a gift after church on Sunday.
My dear friend, who knows that I am still struggling with my back, handed me a bag.
For you. For your back. I hope it will help.

I opened the bag and it contained two back pillows.
She knows that we will be going on vacation soon.
She knows that sitting for long periods of time is not comfortable.

She knows.

Can I pray with you? she sweetly asked.

We sat in the church pew all by ourselves and she lifted me up to the Father.
She pounded on the door of heaven for my family and me.
She kept knocking on heaven’s door, knowing that the One who made me, knows.

He knows.

I was so incredibly touched by her kindness.
I was so moved by a gift that was so practical and so sweet.
I was so comforted by her prayers on my behalf.

She and God know.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)

The Giver of gifts.
Now we know how to give gifts.

Now we know.

God gives good gifts every day.
Look outside and see them.
Look at your loved ones and see them.

Look around and name the good gifts from God’s hands.
Name them so they are not taken for granted.
Name them so we know the Giver.

So we know.

We have lost the art of gift giving.
It has become all about keeping up with the Jones-es.
It has become all about out-doing last year’s gift.

Our gift giving has lost its heart.
Our gift giving is seen as a way to make points, to gain favor.
Our gift giving has become more about us than about them.

Children have it right.
They will spend their time drawing the perfect picture, making the special card.
They will pour themselves into their gift.

They will approach you holding their gift like the treasure that it is.
They will have wrapped it so horribly beautiful you can’t help but smile.
They have given you a piece of themselves, just as if they put a bow on their own head.

It is what they put of themselves in the gift that makes it unique.
The best gift doesn’t cost a fortune.
The best gift is well thought out; it is personal, it is meaningful.

Every gift from God’s hand is good.
Even when we don’t see the good according to the world’s assessment, it is still good.
God gives us what we need, even when we don’t know we need it.

I did not ask my friend for my back pillows.
She knew how to meet a need in a practical way.
It wasn’t flashy, it wasn’t new and improved; it was her heart meeting mine.

She knew.

Now He had to go through Samaria. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give Me a drink?” (His disciples had gone to the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” (John 4:4-10)

The Giver of all good gifts rightfully called Himself the Gift.
The Giver of Living Water.
Not the water the woman came to draw from the well.

That water needs something with which to draw it out.
Jesus spoke of another kind of water: Living Water.

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13, 14)

Jesus wanted to give her a gift.
A gift she didn’t even know she needed.
The Gift of Himself.

The Living Water that will well up inside her to eternal life.
The Living Water that will ensure that she will never thirst again.
The Gift of Himself: the Giver, the Thirst-quencher, the overflowing Well.

The woman came to get water to drink.
The woman left with a well that will never run dry.
The woman came with a past, and a history of brokenness.
The woman left with the knowledge that she is fully known.

The Messiah met her at the well.
The Messiah gave her Himself.
She left her water jar right there where they met.

She wasn’t thirsty any more.
Her soul’s thirst was quenched.
The Giver knew.