God takes great joy in giving gifts to his kids. Don’t steal that joy by questioning his motives. He loves you!

Ever gotten a gift from God that was so unexpected, over-the-top, and extravagant that you assumed He had made a mistake? Did it make you feel unworthy… difficult for you to receive it with grace?

We are strange people. When we don’t feel blessed, we grumble. But when we are blessed, we struggle seeing the blessing through our Father’s eyes.

God really helped me with this many years ago.

Our youngest son David wanted to take an ‘after school’ class in calligraphy. He came home and asked me to get him a calligraphy pen for his first class. He said they’d cost about a dollar.

I went to the stationery store and found the  pens. They were indeed a dollar each, but there were four colors available so I picked one up, turned, turned back again and grabbed one of each color. My son would love the choices.

My eyes then spotted a slickly packaged calligraphy fountain pen… along with 4 different widths of nibs. It also came with 8 colored refill cartridges. It was $7.99.

Several thoughts hit me at once. First, my son would excel in this art form – no question about that. Second, it felt good to ‘over buy’ for him. So, I picked up the package (along with the four cheap pens which would be good for practice!) and took my $12 purchases to the register.

Fast forward a couple of hours. David got home and immediately asked if I’d been able to get his pen. I must admit shamefully that I played the next few minutes with growing glee as I milked the contents of my paper bag for all it was worth.

His smile got bigger – the thanks got louder – my pride got out of hand, – and I almost missed God’s voice in my spirit when He said, “Paul, remember this feeling for the rest of your life. This is the way I feel when I get to give gifts to my kids!’

Don’t turn any gift from God away… just remember what He’s feeling as you receive it.

^“So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children,

how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”

Matthew 7:11 NLT