Not What it Seems

I came across a story about a gift that really hit me hard recently.

The story is about a young man who is about to graduate from college and wants a sports car for graduation from a local dealership from his father. He drops the hints to his dad and knows that he has the money to make such a purchase and over the weeks leading up to his graduation was on the lookout for signs that he was getting the car.

Graduation Day came and his father called the boy into his study. The boy went, anticipating what he just knew was the gift he had wanted. His father handed him a box, the boy opened it to find a Bible and became angry. He threw the box back down on his father’s desk and stormed out.

Years passed as the son went on with his life, not talking to his father, but one day he received a message saying his father was in declining health. The son began to make plans to go back and mend fences with his father, but before he could arrive he received a telegram that his father had passed away and had left his entire estate to the son.

The man returned home to start the process of assessing all he had received, filled with regret and disappointment in himself over how he had not seen his father since Graduation Day and had never made up with him. As he entered his father’s study he found that the new Bible he had been given was still sitting right where he had left it that day.

He opened the box and began to thumb through the pages and a small envelope fell out of the back of the Bible. In the envelope was a key to the sports car, the tag on the key had the date of his graduation and said the words, “Paid in Full”.

This got me thinking about how many times I have missed blessings because I was expecting something different than what happened or a different answer to something that I had so desperately wanted to happen a specific way…in fact, I began thinking about how this happens daily around us, whether to us or someone we know.

The truth is, we have all received a gift in the form of a Savior, who came with a tag that simply stated, “Paid in Full!” Jesus came to show us the way, he has the answer that we have always wanted, but we must read to find it…we must live a life that can help us to find the key that is hidden in His word…we must devote ourselves to finding the key and not becoming angry when things don’t seem to be what we think they should be.

Are you missing that blessing today? The key is in the Word of God…

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” – John 3:16-17