More to Unwrap

We aren’t done with Christmas yet. You may have noticed 10 lords-a-leaping, because this Sunday is the 10th day of Christmas, but now mostly we’ve made it through our holiday traditions. The week between Christmas and New Years was a bit a blur for me. We had family visiting from out of town and have been busy visiting, entertaining, eating, and of course, opening presents.

One of the joys of Christmas in a family that has young kids, is that you vicariously get to appreciate the wonder they have on Christmas morning. None of them slept in, though they dutifully waited until 7ish for us to get up before attacking their stockings and unwrapping the presents under the tree. The kids open one present, and you can see the excitement in their eyes as they discard the wrapping paper and tear into a package. They are enraptured. But when their turn comes around again, they are eager happy to open another present.

The season of Christmas is a celebration of the Incarnation of God in Christ Jesus, that he was a baby boy born in Bethlehem and would grow up to be the redeemer of the world. Jesus is the first and best Christmas gift and when we understand all that his Coming means, we are overcome with wonder. Yes, Christ is born to us and that is cause to celebrate but there is more to unwrap. One day of Christmas was not enough.

In the opening verses of Ephesians, Paul, like a kid on Christmas opening presents, unwraps all the gifts we have in Christ. We are told in verse 3, that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm. And over 12 verses, one long sentence in the Greek, Paul spills out praise to God for all the ways God has blessed us in Christ. He wants us to know that the blessings that come from God are available to us through Jesus, so more than 15 times, he says Christ, or him or the beloved, so that we understand all Christ brings us. And like a kid, Paul does not linger long on one gift, but a flurry of frenetic energy, rushes to unwrap the next present, then the next—a mad dash to explore all that God has given us in Christ.

First Paul tells us that we were chosen by God in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. Before God made anything, you were there in the heart of God. God chose you. God chose you to be holy and blameless before him in love. To be holy, means to be God’s own special one, God’s special reserve, to be precious. We are chosen to be blameless in love. In Christ, God doesn’t blame us but looks on us with nothing but love. Do you sense how magnificent this is? We are each fearfully and wonderfully made, people that God thought of in eternity and loved. What a gift!

But, wait there is more to unwrap.

Paul goes on to say, that God destined us (we have a destiny) to be adopted as God’s own children through Jesus. I have friends and family who have adopted, and the child that they have adopted, gets enfolded into the family. They are no longer someone from somewhere else, but are a part of the family. To be adopted is to enjoy all the rights and responsibilities, and all the love and affection of the parents. Paul is giddy with excitement. We have each been made a part of God’s own family. We are daughters and sons of the God of love, because of Jesus. We know firsthand God’s care, and God has an inheritance for us because of Jesus.

But there is more to unwrap.

We have been redeemed by Christ’s blood. To be redeemed is be bought out of slavery. Because of the Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf on the cross, we are set free from our enslavement to sin—our unhealthy habits and addictions, and greediness of hearts. We are freed from the prospect of death and given the gift of life. We were trapped and powerless, stuck in our ways, unable to act freely. Until God in Christ set us free! Does it get better than this?

Wait, there is more to unwrap!

We are forgiven our trespasses because of all the love that God lavishes on us in Christ. Do you know the feeling of knowing that our actions have hurt God and others? Do know the weight of guilt and shame? Have you said to yourself, how can I be so stupid? I think we all know that feeling. But do you also know what it means to be forgiven, fully and freely by someone who knows every secret thought and whim? Do you know how it feels to have a weight lifted from your soul? It is the best feeling ever.

Oh wait . . .

There is more to unwrap.

God, with all wisdom and insight, according to God’s own pleasure, has made known to us the mystery of God’s will. God, our loving Parent who chose us, adopted us, set us free and forgave us all our failures, reveals to us God’s own heart in Christ. We begin to understand the things that God desires and the things that break God’s heart. We come to know God and God’s ways in our innermost being. Is there anything more marvelous than knowing the heart of God?

In a fever pitch of excitement, Paul tells us, yes there is more.

In Christ, God will gather up all things—things in heaven and things on earth. There is no joy that God won’t take into his being, there is no sorrow or heartache that God won’t absorb and transform. All things will be gathered up in Christ.

Misty eyed Paul whispers to us, “there is one more thing I want you to unwrap.

We’ve been given an inheritance, and a destiny, to be united to God in love. Paul will tell us that we are marked with the seal of the Spirit and given the Holy Spirit as a down payment on our inheritance of redemption. God gives us himself.

Paul unwraps these blessings of God for us because he wants us to understand all that God in Christ has given us. Like a multifaceted gem, Paul turns around the wonders of God’s blessings for us, and the grace poured out toward us. Paul does this knowing that if we really understand what God in Christ has done for us, it will transform our entire life. The world will be made new, because there is new creation. Everything about our perspective on the world and how we care for it, how we treat one another, how we think about ourselves, will be changed. We will, as Paul says here “live for the praise of his glory.” If we, like Paul could unwrap every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm God blesses us with, we would live differently. Our whole being would be stamped with gratitude to God for the great things God has done.