It was a very friendly shower. Not the umbrella kind, but a shower of gifts for the young bride. Cheryl had come halfway across the continent to marry a special young man in our city. We were all anxious to make her feel welcome. She spent about an hour opening pretty packages and exclaiming over our gifts for her new home and her new life among us.
Perhaps you envy her a little. It’s fun to be welcomed among friends and showered with so many gifts. But you need not feel left out. No matter who you are, God has a special home for you and a special shower of gifts for you along the way. God’s gifts are real and costly, and they never wear out or need repair. Interested?
The home God offers is His house in heaven. All His gifts of salvation and peace and forgiveness and joy and daily strength and care -all are waiting just for you, and they are “wrapped up” for you in His book, the Bible. Open it! Receive it! And God by the Holy Spirit will make these gifts yours for keeps!
Of course the bride had already said “yes” to her groom, or she wouldn’t have come to our city. It all began with heart-love between them. God’s gifts are offered because there is love in His heart for you. His love for you began long ago. Then He gave His only begotten Son for you. That love-gift is for anyone who will receive it. Have you said “yes” yet?
After Cheryl’s gift pile was down to zero, someone said, “Just a minute . . . there’s one more!” And you should have seen them bring it in! It was HUGE! Two men, groaning at every step, carried in an enormous box and set it down before the astonished bride. She was almost hidden behind it. Then someone offered scissors to cut the tape. She stood up and set to work to open this last gift. Instead of helping her, we all laughed as she pulled out handfuls of crushed paper. More and more paper came out until she was almost out of sight inside the box. At last . . . she pulled out the gift - a map of the city!
Is a map that important? It surely is, and we all clapped for her discovery. It shows you how to get somewhere if you have never been there before. It’s surely wiser to look at a good map than to get lost. In fact, I know that she used that map very often.
If you need a map you can probably buy one for a few dollars. And if you need a Bible you can also buy it for a few dollars, if you want one. But do you? Are you lost? Do you know the way to heaven without a Bible? Read it, because you are lost, and you will never find the way elsewhere.
Jesus Himself is the Way. I know, because the Bible tells us so. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)). And not only that, but God’s Word tells us the way to live to please Him day by day. It tells us how rich we are, and how very much we are loved by Him.
Have you accepted God’s loving gift? “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)).
ML-02/04/1996