How I Discovered A Gift-Giving God

I love to receive gifts. Especially when I am not expecting them.

One day I received a large box in the mail. Mystified, I checked the return address. Who could be sending me presents, and why? I hurriedly opened the box. Inside were several small, individually wrapped gifts. I opened the card. A friend wrote that she could tell I was a little “down” from my last letter. She intended these gifts to cheer me. I opened each gift with delight. An address book. Padded clothes hangers. A flannel nightgown, sewn by the giver. A sachet. Nothing was terribly expensive, but each gift was chosen with thought. I’m not sure I ever felt quite so appreciated. Those gifts were pure grace--unexpected, sent with love, just because the giver wanted to show she cared.

Gift giving, says Dr. Gary Chapman, is one of the “languages of love” that we all understand. It’s also a language of divine love, I’m discovering. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,” John 3:16 tells us (KJV). God is always giving his good gifts to us because he is love, and it is the nature of love to give.

Years ago, in the process of writing a previous book, Knowing the Voice of God, it seemed that every day God did something special in my life. Daily I saw his hand in big and small ways. Every time I needed something, whether an idea, a story, a scripture, it came just at the right moment. At that time, I began to keep track of what God was doing in my life. I jotted down in a spiral notebook the gifts given for each day. I saw them not as generic blessings, but love gifts from a personal and generous God.

The more I wrote, the more I saw. The more I looked, the more I noticed. Everyday gifts suddenly didn’t seem so ordinary. I began to see them as expressions of God’s love for me given by a lavish God, who simply loves and loves to give. I continued to keep track, taking ten minutes or so every night (or sometimes the next morning) to record the gifts of that day. I didn’t expect it to revolutionize my life, but it did.

Several years later, I struggled with postpartum depression. I had a new baby girl and a four-year-old son. The constant interruptions every night coupled with the hormone imbalance of childbirth threw off my sleep cycle. Two close friends had just moved out-of-state. I felt irritable, spacey, trapped, weepy, or just plain sleepy. I was concerned about certain health problems, worried about finances and my work productivity. Where is God? I was tempted to cry.

But continuing to keep the “gifts journal” in the midst of my postpartum struggles realigned my focus and perspective. The answer I discovered was, God is right here. He’s showing me he loves me right now, every day. I was developing the habit of seeing.

Jesus said the Spirit is like the wind. We see the effects of wind, although we cannot see the wind itself. My gifts journal showed me the effects of the Spirit’s activity in my life. Before keeping the journal, I sometimes felt poor, forgotten, lonely, depressed. Since then I have felt rich, remembered, loved, excited. As I live each day, it becomes an adventure.

I have read that a person’s individual image of God is influenced by background. If a child has good, loving parents, it’s easier as an adult to conceive of God as good and loving. If one’s parents were withholding, punitive, demanding, or neglectful, she will tend to project that onto God. “The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made, declares the Bible” (Psalm 145:13, NIV). “The Lord is near to all who call on him” (v. 18).

Whatever your background, I invite you to begin your journey toward knowing God as a lavish Father who wants to shed grace in your life in very personal, specific ways.

How do you do that?

First, ask God to open your eyes to the gifts that he longs to give you. Even if you're not so sure there is a God, or what he is like, you can ask this.

You may be amazed at the results.

Second, just begin to notice the good things that come into your life. If you can, jot them down. That makes them more real. Plus, in low moments you can go back and read them.

Here is a list of the kinds of gifts I regularly note, to get you started:

*Common or universal gifts

*Ordinary gifts that sometimes go unnoticed

*Gifts from God through others

*Gifts to others

*Inner gifts

*Personalized gifts

*Miraculous or extraordinary gifts

*Gifts of mercy

*”Disguised” gifts that don't feel like gifts, but later you discover they were

*Spiritual gifts

As you notice such gifts, take a moment to say "thank you." It's often the forgotten part of thanks giving, yet it's very powerful. If the gifts truly come from a Person (as I believe they do), then when you thank that Person, it completes a cycle that only grows.

Before you know it, God will feel more real to you. You will begin to feel loved. Your problems will begin to fade into the background—still there, but not so prominent. In the foreground will be the blessings.

And—what you focus on will expand. So these blessings will only grow.

I encourage you to at least try it. I believe you'll be both delighted and amazed at the results