Heather Yost provided our post for this week! Be sure to check her out on the contributor’s page.

Who doesn’t enjoy a beautifully wrapped gift?  Some of us put more emphasis on wrapping than others, but most of us agree that there’s something special about a gift adorned with carefully selected paper and ribbon that gives us joy before we see the actual gift inside.  

My mom has a talent for wrapping gifts in such a way that it is almost painful to tear the paper from it.  She is a connoisseur of quality paper, ribbons, and embellishments.  When our family is together for Christmas, we take note of the patterns, themes, and specialty ribbons she used to adorn our gifts.  

The beauty of the gifts certainly makes a delightful scene under the tree, and in that moment, we almost forget there’s a gift beneath the glittered paper.    Of course, on Christmas morning, our hesitation to rip open the packages is dismissed and as soon as the gift is revealed, the paper is quickly forgotten and tossed aside to be collected for garbage. 

Our attention is then focused on the gift and the giver.  As beautiful as the packages have been over the years, I can’t recall the details of even the most beautiful paper, but I could certainly detail some of the precious gifts I’ve been given.  

We know that life is a gift, but I recently heard a woman’s testimony of a life filled with suffering.  She had endured several tragedies, and just when she thought her suffering was over, the LORD would sustain her through another difficulty.  

Each trial brought her closer in fellowship to Jesus in the fellowship of His suffering, but it’s still hard.  Life is hard; God is good.  She shared an allegory that had eased her thoughts on her difficult life which was this: that life is just the wrapping paper; Jesus is the gift.  

 James 4:14 gives perspective when we are weighed down with the cares of this world- “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.  For what is your life?  It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.”  

When tragedy strikes and tears away the beautiful bow, loss of health rips the corner off, death of a loved one leaves our precious package unrecognizable, in our sorrow, we forget about the true gift and the Giver.  As we limp along trying to make sense of it all, God whispers gently to our aching hearts that Jesus is the gift.   

In Psalm 73, we read that Asaph was disappointed in the prosperity of the wicked, but when he considered the destiny of unbelievers, he concluded in verses 25 and 26, that in this life, there is suffering.  Suffering causes us to look past the wrapping and long for the gift.  Jesus is the gift: “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.  My flesh and my heart faileth:  but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”