“I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14 NIV 

God is good.  That is a simple yet profound statement.  God is good.  His works are wonderful.  Each of us are one of God’s great works; each of us were wonderfully made. 

You are a wonderful gift.  You are one of God’s good and precious creations.  We can’t say it enough to one another.  In fact, God gave us instuctions in Hebrews 10:25 to encourage one another.  How do we encourage one another?  We share the gift of ourselves.

I can’t deny that it is the Christmas season.  There are many presents about.  I am looking at a bunch under my Christmas tree right now.  This year, let’s think more about presence than presents. 

It says in Matthew 1:23, “they will call Him Immanuel which means God with us.”  God with us.  What an amazing blessing God gave us by sending Jesus, Immanuel, to be with us.  If God gives us the example to live by and He blesses us with the gift of His presence, shouldn’t we be a blessing by giving others the gift of our presence? 

I am guilty of not being present when I am with others.  Sometimes I am on my phone or computer, in the same room, but certainly not with others.  Sometimes I am mentally absent, working over problems in my own mind or speculating about the future.  But, there are times, when I am on the ball.  I am focused and delighting in taking in whoever is blessing me with the gift of their presence. 

What would happen if today we made a choice to give the gift of our presence to those we come in contact with.  Whether they are in person, on the phone or other electronic means.  Let’s take it one individual at a time. 

Let’s imagine that we are giving them the gift of ourselves.  Getting gifts is fun, but isn’t the anticipation of giving one even better?  Think of yourself as a uniquely designed gift.  You have a package that was hand designed.  What is inside is even better, it’s a 100% unique masterpiece; truly a treasure. 

This is a gift that can be given to all those in your lives.  Your spouse, children, family, friends, collegues and even radom strangers can receive your gift.   Even more importantly you are a gift to God.  You can bring Him glory. 

This sure sounds wonderful, right?  But what about when we are not received as the gifts, the treasures, that we were created to be.  Those times when we’ve been discarded or when people have cut into us, they hurt and leave scars.  That’s the impact of sin upon our lives sometimes our own and sometimes someone else’s.  There’s hope!  God’s word says that love covers a multitude of sins. 

In the same way, if we are received in love by a few people as a treasured gift, it covers so many of the times that we were not.  God is always ready to love you and receive you as a gift.  He is the source of love. 

You are a treasure and I know this, because you are a gift to me.  Each time you read, every single comment that is written, you encourage me to press on.  I know it takes time to read these words.  The gift of your time is a precious gift to me.  I feel that each reader is cheering me on while I run the race that God called me to. 

I pray that you would be encouraged to run the race that God has called you to.  That you know deep in your heart that you are a treasured gift.  So I leave you in God’s hands with this prayer.

Dearest Lord, thank you so much for the gift of Immanuel.  What a great treasure that we can be with You.  What an amazing blessing that we can give the gift of our presence to others.  I lift up to you each life who is touched by this writing.  Please help them to see themselves as a treasure and to be received by Your children who are here on earth as a priceless gift.   Help them each to feel valued today.  You are good and worthy of praise; to You be the glory.  Amen.