Love gives gifts
A devotional by Terry Swenson on Ephesians 4:11-13
The Holiday Season of 2022 lies in our recent past. If you are reading this, congratulations! You made it through them! When I was growing up, Christmas music didn’t start playing on the radio until Christmas Eve and ceased at midnight on Christmas day. Now Christmas decorations, music, and sales start the day after Halloween! I wonder how many of us are trying to recover from all the Yuletide blizzard!
Just what was that all about? Well, I think it could be boiled down to this — gifts. Oh, I’m not talking about the commercialized ones proffered by all the sales. I’m talking deeper than that. The kerygma, central core of Christmas is a gift — THE gift. The gift of love from the heart of God for us poured into the “package” of a little baby boy born in a stable — God in the flesh. Our flesh. Jesus. So many things came with that gift — love, peace, purpose, forgiveness, hope. Those are what are wrapped up in a God Love Gift. Yet, God’s gifts to us did not stop there. In Ephesians 4:11-13, Paul shares another love gift list:
“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
The “packages” in this passage come in the form of people like you and me with a purpose. Several life callings are listed, but their responsibilities and purposes are for all of us. They have a threefold purpose.
The first is that this love will help all the relationships formed by it to grow and thrive and mature and bring completeness for those involved. Secondly, love ministers to the hearts and needs of those who are loved. And thirdly, love edifies, nurtures, and builds up the whole communal network of relationships.
Each of us are called to be packages of love with the same purposes. And each of these purposes have clear goals in mind. God’s love for us lives in us and loves through us into the lives of all those around us. When this comes to life, people are united and not othered. We all gain a deep and experiential knowing of God as it comes to life through our love for each other. We all receive the precious gift of feeling complete.
Love transforms. God’s love transforms us into beings just like Him. That is the best gift we can give to our family, friends, and neighbors. That is the best thing we can do for LLUH. That makes 2023 a year where we can have faith, hope, and love.
—Terry Swenson, DMin, is director of University Spiritual Care.
