The Gift I Never Wanted
Have you ever received a gift you didn’t want? Or one you didn’t like?
At 4 years old, my son received a gift he didn’t want and his reaction was captured on video. I can laugh about it now, but when he looked into the camcorder and declared, “I didn’t want this,” laughter wasn't my initial reaction.
Off-camera, a lesson in good manners ensued followed with a reluctant “thank-you.” The gift-- a toy keyboard-- was earnestly set aside.
Surprisingly, days later my curious son picked up the rejected toy and began to play with it. The once despised gift soon became my son's favorite toy. His friends loved it, too.
For months, day and night, I would hear the keyboard being plucked and the pre-recorded tunes playing on repeat.
Any despised gift can turn beloved when appreciated for the delight it provides.
It’s ironic how wrong we can be when we rush to judge the chords of dysfunction playing in our lives without stopping to consider the potential joy they could bring if we would allow God to show us the beautiful melody He is composing.
Like my young son, I’m guilty of looking at what’s happening in my life-- the gifts God is giving-- and declaring, "I didn't want this!" I label the challenges as the gift I never wanted instead of seeing them as a gift from the One who gives perfect gifts.
When you fail to see a challenging situation from God’s perspective, you miss the opportunity to trust Him, to depend on Him, and to grow and mature in your faith.
Sitting in a slimy pit of family crisis, it’s often too hard to imagine what you're facing is a gift.
But it’s possible you sill see it as a gift in the future.
Even the worst things can become the best things.
Good parents love to give good gifts to their children.
A squeal of delight from your child opening a gift confirms your parental instincts; you feel affirmed in how well you know your child.
But when a child is disappointed in a gift and expresses their ingratitude, the sting of rejection becomes a pain point that’s hard to shake.
Repeatedly, I have been the one to reject a gift lovingly chosen for me by my Heavenly Father.
Some gifts have felt more like punishment than something hand-picked for me.
Awakening morning after morning to nightmarish circumstances, exhaust, and fatigue sparks anger. Living in fear and worry causes you to be so myopic, you can’t imagine any hope for the future.
There was a time when I rejected God’s gifts to me every time He placed one in my hands.
Often, when you reject God’s gifts, He will keep offering them. And when He does, He offers more of Himself to you, too. He opens His arms and pulls you close. He lights a path toward a hopeful future. In times of despair, fear, and chaos, God sprinkles grace over your circumstance and showers His love over your desert-parched soul.
As a perfect parent, God gives perfect gifts.
The gift that looks like a punishment could be the perfect circumstance to cause you to fall on your knees more often than before. The gift that makes you weep could be the perfect problem that exposes your sin and hardness of heart. And the gift that brings unwanted public attention could be the very thing God wants to use in your life to help you learn how to stay focused on Him and not on the things people may say.
In every rejection of His gifts, God finds other ways to reach us. For every person who tries to pull away from Him and His plan, God reaches out and takes hold of their heart. With every door we close to His offering, He unwraps a gift that points us to our need for Him.
You see, you're not the only one who is receiving a gift you never wanted. You aren't alone in your uplifted cry of, "I didn't want this." You are in good company. And you are in the right place with the right One to help you cherish your unwanted gifts.
Corrie ten Boom expressed it like this, "Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our life is the perfect preparation (or gift?) for the future only He can see."
Hold tight to hope. Love your gifts and the Gift-Giver. Surrender to God's perfect plan and remember He hand-picked it for you.
While we wait in a vast wasteland, with gifts we didn’t know we needed, God will never leave us or forsake us. Guided toward a blooming paradise where the hard, difficult, broken, messy, and the unwanted gifts reveal God's heart, we might soon be declaring it all, "the gift I never wanted."
Waiting with you,
Susan