2009 Letter No 09Each month Bill writes a pastor's letter for our monthly church magazine called 'The Messenger'. Here is the letter for September: Do you ever feel a little bit awkward receiving a gift ... especially a generous one? I do. Earlier this year I entered a competition in Inspire magazine in which the prize was a free holiday at the Highlands Hotel in Jersey. To my great surprise a few weeks later I received a telephone call to inform me that I had won and that Kerrion, Silas, Thomas and I would soon be going for a free week’s holiday as guests of the hotel. It was very exciting.
Now the time has come to receive our free gift, and I am looking forward to it, but I also feel a little bit awkward. After all, I have not done anything to deserve this great treat, and I am sure that there are others who deserve this more than I do.
But that is the point of a gift. It is free and, as often as not, it is undeserved. And of all the people in the world, Christians should be the best at receiving gifts that we do not deserve. After all, the whole Christian life has as its foundation the free underserved gift of God. Becoming a Christian is basically receiving the free gift of forgiveness in Christ with gratitude. Living the Christian life is basically responding with love to God for the love he has first shown to us.
So I will go on my holiday with that attitude in mind. This is a gift. I do not deserve it. But I will receive it with gratitude and enjoy the good things that I have no right to expect.
I hope that others find joy in the good gifts of God, both material and spiritual, which we have no right to expect. We have a gracious God, who loves to give, and who is delighted when we respond with love and gratitude.
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