We are created to give.

Can you remember the last time you received an unexpected gift? Maybe that gift came in the form of something material that you really wanted. Or perhaps someone blessed you with an act of service. I’m sure you felt surprised and thankful, and if you’re anything like me, perhaps you were already planning how to pay that gift forward?

God created us to love gifts because He is the ultimate gift giver. We don’t need to search high and low to know that this is true—we can just look around us!:

We are His creation. God created us in His image. His gift to us was life.

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27, ESV)

He gave us His breath inside our lungs. His gift to us was a part of Himself.

“then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:7, ESV)

He gave us a purpose. His gift to us is to know our existence matters.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

And most importantly, He created us to know His ultimate gift—Jesus. God’s gift to us through Jesus is eternal life and freedom from our sin.

“‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’” (John 3:16, ESV)

God is a giving God—for God so loved the world that He GAVE—and we are created in His image. So we were also created to give!

Are you a giver? If you have air in your lungs and a reflection in the mirror, then yes, that’s who you’ve been created to be! We can be givers of many things: our time, our resources, our prayers, and our compassion to those around us.

You’re a miracle!

Grant Fishbook

P.S. The texts of this reading come from the daily email A Miracle Every Day. If you want to receive an email every day, I invite you to subscribe to A Miracle Every Day.