God offers a most precious gift to us. He presses for us to
receive it. Our natural reaction is to decline. It does not look like anything
we would like or want. We try to say “no thank you”, “that’s nice, but you
should really keep it”, “I don’t think I have a use for this” and many more
variations on the same. He is insistent to the point that we either get fed up
and push back with greater force to reject His gift or we reluctantly agree. If
we receive this gift, we are not sure why.
Upon opening this gift we finally see it rightly. It is our
most treasured possession. We don’t know how we could have lived without it. In
fact, we do not consider ourselves to be really alive before God forced this
gift on us. This gift is most cherished. All our other possessions pale in
comparison. To us, we have no other possession besides this gift. We would give
our lives to keep it. We look around at others whom God is still pressuring to
receive His gift. We are shocked at their reluctance. We urge them not to
resist God. Trust us, this is something you want. We are dismayed when we see
some get angry at God. They tell Him to take His gift and stuff it, “leave me
alone”, “I don’t want it”. They keep God at a distance, avoiding Him at all
costs. When they see God coming, they cross over to the other side of the
street. We can see the disheartened look on God’s face, the longing to give the
ultimate gift for each human being, but His quality of justice not allowing
Himself to force His gift on anyone that rejects Him.
