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GETTING A GIFT FOR JFK

In his book, Conversations With Kennedy, family friend Ben Bradlee tells about being with the 35th President and his wife for JFK’s 46th birthday, May 29, 1963, just a few months before the tragic assassination in Dallas. And there at Camp David, Ben and his wife Tony watched in amusement as the President ripped open one present after another. There were family gifts; there were presents from politicians. Heads of state had sent packages large and small. And with this mountain of stuff to unfold and unwrap, Bradlee noted that Kennedy was like a little kid. Not in being excited about all the gifts, but in the way he was blanking out over the excess of it all. “Here’s one from Senator So-and-So,” Jackie would tell him. So he would tear off the paper and just stare at the gadget or memento or picture of Mount Rushmore carved out of cheese. Or whatever. And the Chief Executive would give a shrug. “Oh. Okay. On to the next thing.” It was clear that for this wealthy, prosperous, millionaire world leader, who already had everything in the world he needed, and who was always posing in the Oval Office with football teams and AFL-CIO teamsters, and who was always getting free sweatshirts and model cars and pineapples and cakes and souvenirs, you just couldn’t impress the man. There was no way to get John F. Kennedy to pause and reverently treasure a present and then say in awe: “Guys, now THAT’S a present. THAT’S a keeper.”

And here in December, just two days before Christmas, we have to wonder if the same is true about God? Is it possible to get through to this Deity and impress Him? He’s so rich, He’s so powerful, He’s so omnipresent and so omniscient and so omnipotent and so omni-gifted-out — He already has EVERYTHING — that we wonder what to do with all the Christmas carols that talk about bringing our best gift to the Christ Child.

Maybe you remember the carol, “In the Bleak Midwinter.” And maybe it looks that way outside your car window here on this cold Tuesday as you head to work. But one verse goes like this:

What can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise man I would do my part; Yet what can I give Him? Give my heart.

And we say: “Of course.” That’s the tried-and-true theme of Christmas . . . and friend, I believe that theme. “Give God your heart” is the very core of this radio ministry, and I don’t mean just in December. But reflecting back on that Kennedy model, where he has one hour to open two hundred presents, and simply cannot get INTO it, is it in actuality like that for God? Does He really care about getting your heart tomorrow? Does it matter to Him if He gets all of you as a Christmas gift? “Not just a part, He wants all of your heart”?

We borrowed a marvelous paragraph yesterday from the A. W. Tozer book, The Knowledge of the Holy, and here’s a bit more which helps us to understand the miracle of God’s Christmas list and the fact that “God loves you” isn’t just a cheap “Season’s Greetings” card message.

“From God’s other known attributes we may learn much about His love,” Tozer writes. “We can know, for instance, that because God is self-existent, His love had no beginning; because He is eternal, His love can have no end; because He is infinite, it has no limit; because He is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity; because He is immense, His love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence and from which the loftiest eloquence retreats confused and abashed.”

John F. Kennedy was just too busy and rich to absorb two hundred presents he didn’t need. If he had lived to be a hundred, he could never have worn all the sweaters, played with the toys, eaten all the cheesecakes, and adorned his Oval Office desk with all the paperweights and trinkets. But friend, the “infiniteness” of God means that He is able to pause everything, pause the ceaseless spinning of His universe, pause time itself, and simply come close to your Christmas hearth this year. And wait for you. Wait and hope and wish and pray for you to give yourself to Him as a gift. It’s as though there’s no other person, no other Christmas tree, no other stocking. And as though God had no other desires; all of His infinite heart of love is yours. Waiting for you to respond.

King David, in writing his 104th Psalm, seems amazed to realize that God can pause like that and care about him. Would the God of the universe really stop everything and bend down low and listen to his songs? Care about his prayers? Walk with him through the valley of the shadow of death?

“May MY meditation be pleasing to Him,” David writes, “as I rejoice in the Lord.”

And we find that, just as we rejoice in God, He is capable of rejoicing in us. Infinitely more capable than we are, of course. And He doesn’t rejoice over the ocean of humanity, the vast total of six billion — well, yes, He does that too — but He rejoices over the one. This same A. W. Tozer humbly and gratefully adds:

“The love of God is one of the great realities of the universe, a pillar upon which the hope of the world rests. But it is a personal, intimate thing, too.” And get this: “God does not love populations, He loves people. He loves not masses, but men. [And women. And boys and girls and babies.] He loves us all with a mighty love that has no beginning and can have no end.”

Well, friend, that’s what’s waiting on the other side of this Christmas. Do I believe that God waits up ‘til midnight for a lonely sinner to come home? You bet I do. That’s not a metaphor at all; it’s as true as the cross of Christ.

Think back a year or so to that time when you were going to get somebody a very special gift. This person held a unique place in your heart; you cared very much for them. And you really had planned that present, that unforgettable offering. But you know, the days went by. Pretty soon there were just four shopping days left, then three, then two and one and none. The time slipped away. It got to where, even with Fed Ex, even with the Internet, you just couldn’t pull the trigger. And the 25th of December came and went without that sacred magical moment happening. You still gave something, but it was ordinary. She can’t remember it, and only with some shame do you recall how the inertia of your indecision took that rare opportunity right away from you.

So let me say to you here: don’t let that happen this time. God is waiting . . . waiting . . . waiting. Waiting just for you. No one else will do. And really, no one else WILL do. No one else IS you. And His Christmas cannot be complete unless you quietly but firmly make that full decision. You won’t let the time pass; you won’t send a substitute gift, a last-minute token. You’ll give Him all of you: the entire thing, the full heart, the complete surrender, the totality of Year 2004. But you have to choose; it has to be willful . . . just like when you get into your car tonight, and turn on the engine, and go down to the mall and walk the halls until that very best person in your life, who’s done so much for you, is cared for the way they deserve.

By the time you and I talk again tomorrow, I hope you have the gift wrapped and the sales receipt in the bag.

Merry Christmas.