Accepting Undeserved Gifts

I recently received a gift. Now mind you, I like gifts, a lot. Who doesn't really? But this was one of those take your breath away sorts of gifts. A gift I did not want to touch in case it was some sort of mistake. But soon it sank in that this brand new guitar in front of me was in fact sent to me by...anonymous. There was no card or tag or from or anything. It did not say who paid the bill or ordered it. It was just sitting there waiting to be picked up, plugged in and played. Being the inquisitive person I am, I immediately called my parents, neither knew a thing about it and so I started trying to figure out who would have done this and WHY! I have ideas of who may have been invovled in this, but I came to a realization. Finding out who sent this gift is not the point. If they wanted a phone call saying thanks, they would have put in a note or called to make sure it arrived intact. Instead, I think the sender of this gift wants me to do what the gift calls for, to be pulled from it's case, tuned up, turned up and played on. To be used in worship is the type of thanks this type of anonymous gift calls for.

Now why has this hit me so hard? I do not deserve this kind of gift. Sure there I days when I feel like I deserve everything I want and then there are days when I know what I have coming and know I deserve every bit of it. Usually the latter is true. But I think that this gift I have received outlines something important. Christ came to earth to die in our place as the biggest undeserved gift ever. We spend so much time trying to figure out why or wrestle with the nuts and bolts of Christian life and forget to just pick up the gift with a greatful heart and use it to the best of our ability. Does Christ expect our thanks? Yes, but I think the thanks he wants is not the thanks that we generally say in our bedtime prayers, but instead using of his gift to glorify his name.