I Promise I Won’t Waste Your Gift!

Posted: 25 Dec 2008 01:00 AM CST
The Feast of Christmas
Luke 2:1-14
A woman had a dog, and that little dog was the most precious friend in all her life. When Christmas came, she wanted to find just the right gift for her little friend, so she searched the department stores and boutiques high and low. Finally she found the perfect gift, a handsome jeweled dog collar. “This is it!” she cried.
“What size would you like?” asked the clerk.
“Oh, dear,” she fretted, “I just don’t know.”
The clerk was sensible: “Why not take a tape measure and measure him?”
“Oh, I couldn’t do that!” she exclaimed. “This is a Christmas present. It has to be a surprise!”

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Tonight we celebrate the biggest surprise that God ever gave us: His very own Son, Jesus, who came to help us find our way home.
When God made us, He made us good, every last one of us. But we weren’t finished, just barely started! Each of us has the lifetime task of growing into the persons God always dreamed we’d be. But as we’ve all discovered, it’s not a task we can do alone. On our own, we get stuck in an endless cycle of trial and error, trial and error! Eventually, we lose heart and give up.

That’s not what God wants. So He sent Jesus to give us back our hearts; to give us hope that all our striving is going somewhere; to pick us up, dust us off, take us by the hand, and show us the way home. Jesus came to save our lives. And now tonight He needs to hear from us: “Thank you, Jesus. I promise I won’t waste your gift.”