The Gift That Keeps Bringing Us Joy

The Gift That Keeps On Giving Us Joy

12.4.23 [1 John 4:9-10] Video Devotional

Was it just me or did the Christmas sales start even earlier this year? I know it feels like Christmas comes earlier and earlier each year. But this year it felt like Christmas came really early. Maybe part of it was the weather for us. Here in Arizona, we were still in the 100s when the big box stores and the online giants were talking about holiday sales. But it was more than that. The sales started in early October—even before I had picked out my Halloween costume.

It’s no secret why retailers want to get you thinking about Christmas presents earlier and earlier. It helps their bottom line. As consumers, we don’t mind much as we might say. We might grumble a little bit in our conversations, but we are still searching, still shopping, and still purchasing. Because securing the perfect gift is still so important. We all want to find that perfect gift for our friends and family and we’d like to save a little scratch doing it.

Sometimes that is easier said than done. It can be hard to find the perfect gift for everyone on your list. Great gifts meet needs and make life easier. Great gifts are filled with meaning and thoughtfulness. Great gifts may involve going to a great deal of trouble. But we do it because we care about the people we are giving these gifts to. They aren’t just something we are trying to check off our list. They are individuals we love. Our gifts are one way we show our love for them.

In John’s Gospel, his inspired record of the life of Jesus, John repeatedly refers to one of the twelve disciples as the One Jesus loved. At the end of his Gospel, he reveals that he has been talking about himself. It’s not that John thought that he was Jesus’ favorite disciple. John just knew that Jesus loved him and he wanted those who read his Gospel to know that love personally. John wanted people, you and me, to know that God loves them personally.

So, in John’s first letter, he focuses on God’s love for people. Here’s what he writes: 1 John 4:9–10 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

God didn’t just tell us he loved us. He showed us he loved us. He showed his love among us by sending his one and only Son into this world. This gift was planned. In love, God planned since before creation to send his Son to be our Substitute and our Savior. In love, God dropped more than a few hints about what this Savior would look like and accomplish. In love, God was promising that he would fulfill our greatest needs. He would take away our sin and guilt and shame. He would give us love and security, contentment and joy. God gives us all these things because he loves us deeply. We need that love.

We might be able to get a lovely gift for our friends and family at Christmas, but we cannot love them perfectly all the time. We might be able to smile and wave at complete strangers during the more festive times of the year, but there are plenty of times we struggle to actually love them. We might be able to sing a few Christmas carols, but we do not love God as he has loved us.

John drives this big point home in these short verses. God gave us his best, his one and only Son, at a time when we didn’t even love him.

Think about how hard it would be to give a gift to someone who has deeply wounded you. Maybe you could find the strength and summon the courage to do it. But it wouldn’t be as good or as joyful a gift as you would give someone who loves you.

Yet this is exactly what God did for us. Even when we did not love him, even while we were still ungodly, selfish, wicked, rebellious, and stubborn, God loved us enough to send his Son into this world so that we might be set free from our ungodliness, our selfishness, our wicked tendencies, our rebellious intentions, and the stubbornness of our sin. When God gave his Son, he wasn’t looking to save a little bit. He gave his most dearly beloved, his one and only Son. That Son, Jesus, stepped into our place so that we might be redeemed.

And our Triune God did all this for us joyfully. When the Father sent his Son into this world the sky lit up with his angels saying Glory to God in the highest! Heaven burst forth with rejoicing when our Redeemer came to earth. When the Son stepped into our world, he showed his love for every single person he met—even those who hated and executed him. When the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, God’s people were filled with divine love and joy. God has done all this for us because he is love and we get a chance to see and celebrate this love during the Christmas season.

Love has a way of inspiring people to open up their hearts, their minds, and all their expressive gifts. It’s one of the reasons that this season is linked with songs.

We would love to have you join with us and reflect on this gift with joy this Christmas season. What a wonderful gift of love we have received from our God. At River of Life we will be celebrating that gift on Christmas Eve at 4pm and Christmas Day at 9am. Hope to see you there! Merry Christmas.