The 12 Days of Christmas - Day 12

Grace, Grace, Grace

Luke 11:9
So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

The lesson for today is to graciously receive.

Do you have a favorite Christmas gift that stands out in your memory?

This season Lexus has a commercial that shows a little boy with a new Big Wheel. He looks at the camera and says,

"Stop. What are you doing?”
“You can’t top the Big Wheel memory. It was the
best present ever.”
"Remember the freedom, the wind in your hair?”
"It’s the Big Wheel. Look at it! Nothing could ever be this… "

The camera pans to the kid all grown up gazing, adoringly at a new Lexus with a bright red bow on top.

"...great.”

When I was 12 or 13 I wanted a grown up bike, a 10-speed just like my older sisters. I used every opportunity to convince my parents I needed a brand new, bright blue 10-speed bike. I was just like Ralphie slyly bringing a Red Ryder BB gun into every conversation in A Christmas Story.

On Christmas morning that bike was under the tree and it was beautiful. It is still one of my all-time favorite Christmas presents.

But, like the little boy who grows up from loving his Big Wheel to his Lexus, I have learned there are better gifts than my brand new, bright blue 10-speed bike.

Gifts that are freely given.
All we have to do is graciously receive them.

Here are the best gifts I can think of:

The gift of salvation - the true gift that keeps giving
Unending grace
Complete acceptance
Perfect Love
Eternal Hope

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?

On the 12th Day of Christmas think about the greatest gift. The gift that came to us as a Babe, wrapped in swaddling cloths. This gift is freely offered to you, all you have to do is receive it.