The gift or the Giver?

One thing I've learnt to do is to observe and learn from other peoples actions/inactions, and funny enough, a lot of my lessons recently have been from kids.

Just the other day, I called a three year old three times but got no response from her, unknown to me, she heard me all along but refused to respond for two reasons: one, she was watching a program on the television and two, she thought I wanted to tell her to clean up a mess she made earlier. Unknown to her, I got her favorite yoghurt and wanted to give it to her. Can you believe my young sweetheart ignored my calls (despite the fact that I shouted her name several times)? However, as soon as I showed her the yoghurt, she came running to me with the biggest grin ever, took the yoghurt and left as fast as she came, barely mumbling "thank you".

That reminded me of how I treat God, several times I choose my own ideas over God's commands to me, don't readily say "Here I am" when He calls, run to Him for blessings and often times, say "thank you" to Him more out of courtesy than real, deeply felt gratitutde. This brings us to John 26, where after Jesus fed the five thousand, people were seeking Him, not for the miraculous signs, but for the food. Oh, how often we seek the gift instead of the Giver!

To make it worse, whenever we ask for gifts from God and we don't get what we want, when we want them, we get mad at Him, acting like He is a genie who is at our service. Did the Bible not clearly state that "all things have been created through Him and for Him (Colossians 1: 16)? Why then do we act like God is accountable to us and not the other way round? We ignore and disobey Jesus' command in Matthew 6:33 where He told us to "Seek the kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need".

I want to ask that during this season of giving and beyond, we seek Christ, the One who gave His life that we may live, and don't just seek Him for the blessings you want, be sure to truly seek Him First, that way, you will have a real relationship with Him and His will becomes your will. You can be assured that if you do, you will have the best of everything since "The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right" Psalm 84:11b.  

Do have a very merry Christmas.