Gift-giving can be an exciting time! Holidays, birthdays, and special events are filled with surprises when the gifts given are prepared with life-giving intent. The purpose in this celebration is that the recipient know that they are loved very much. I personally know the joy I have in searching for the gift that will touch the heart and bring joy to the one to whom I’m presenting it. With anticipation, I watch as they open the gift…hoping that they don’t miss my best of intentions.

I’m recalling the many times in gatherings where the gift recipient was so busy tearing into the wrappings of multiple gifts that the gift itself was lightly valued ~ if at all. How disappointing! We all appreciate being remembered; yet we often forget the intent of the giver: deep expressions of their heart.

John recorded Jesus’ words: “You keep searching the scriptures in the belief that through them you get eternal life; and it is these that bear witness OF Me. Yet you do not want to come TO Me in order to have life.” [5:39-40] Those hearing these words had memorized and taught them ~ yet He told them they had missed HIM.

I’m recalling a very young family member exclaiming, after opening several gifts several Christmases ago, “Is that all?” How often have we unwrapped the deeply inspired Word of God in our hurried devotional times, with so-called ’tissues flying,’ only to come away with a secret thought…”Is that all?” Perhaps we’ve missed the Giver while rushing through black ink on paper in our Bibles.

The wrappings are the 66 books the Spirit of God inspired to be written to us personally; but the precious Gift, the inspired content, is the Person of the Word Himself. Coming away from devotional times and missing the Giver, we’ve simply torn the bows, left tissues flying, and balled up the wrapping paper. The search must be much deeper; thus, the Spirit of God is ever so near to reveal the Giver as we seek Him with all our heart and unwrap the gift once again.