Every Good Gift: A 28-Day Advent DevotionalSample

Our verse this week contains a juxtaposition. Do you know what it is? Hint: we touched on it in yesterday’s reflection on light. 

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James 1:17, emphasis added)

James contrasts heavenly lights and shifting shadows. Yesterday, we looked at how God is light and how that light shines His love into the darkness of our world. Today, we are going to travel to the other side of this tension and consider what James means when he comments that God “…does not change like shifting shadows.”

Shifting shadows is an obvious comparison to heavenly lights. We can all understand the contrast between light and darkness. Less obvious but implicit in this turn of phrase, is the element of faithfulness in contrast with unreliability. God is faithful and does not change as the shadows do. If God is light, then He is always light with no darkness in Him. (1 John 1:5) He is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) We can trust that His gifts will always be good and perfect because His love never changes.

This teaches us an important lesson about love. Love does not come and go like shifting shadows, it remains constant and faithful. It is a light that does not change with shifting shadows of a world that is unstable and insecure. It is something others can rely on.

Compassion tutor Lissete has lived out this love as a lifestyle and served the children at her Compassion centre with a constant and faithful love that has impacted the lives of many students. Lissete expresses this kind of love because it was a gift she, herself, received from the Compassion centre in a time when she needed it most. Lisette came to the Compassion centre over a decade ago having recently given birth while her husband was unemployed and her family was facing significant health challenges. One of her daughters was registered in Compassion’s sponsorship program and Lisette was also offered employment as a tutor, changing her family’s story.

“I had heard about Compassion in the community. Still, being on the inside, I realized what a jewel it is and what a blessing it is to each of the children,” she said. “I think the centre impacts the lives of the children and youth so much because of its spiritual component. It’s Jesus who changes the whole picture.”

Interacting with the youth she tutors is her favorite pastime. She calls them to ask about important issues, visits them, befriends their caregivers, and involves them in various church and extracurricular activities.

Her faithful love does not go unnoticed. “Lissete is a jewel, a role model,” said Dilcia, the centre director. “She goes above and beyond as a tutor and goes the extra mile in every way. I can say, without a doubt, that if Lissete had not been in our midst for almost 13 years of service, many teenagers would have strayed from the right path.”

Lissete is one of the thousands of tutors in the Dominican Republic who are demonstrating a constant and reliable love to the children they serve amidst the instability and insecurity that poverty creates. They shine the light of Christ as they truly live a lifestyle of love so that every child can receive the good gifts that God has for them.

“With much love and intentionality, we take the responsibility that God has given into our hands: our children. And we will never feel peace until we see them shine and fulfill their dreams,” Lissete shares with a smile.

Prayer:

Father, You are faithful in Your love to me. Constant and never changing, I can rely on Your love and trust Your good gifts. The world around me may shift like shadows, but You stand in contrast to the world. Today, I ask that You will show me how to love others in the same faithful way that I might reflect Your character and goodness to a chaotic and turbulent world. Amen.