Posted on: Sunday, December 26, 2004

Your gift to God is what you can truly be

By Joel Fujita

As the Christmas season comes to pass, have you ever asked what is the greatest gift Jesus Christ received from God the Father? WE are God's precious gift to Jesus Christ. You don't have to "wash up," put some gel on your hair or wear your best jewelry to go out to meet him. Your earthly presentation is not that important. It's in your inner soul.

What you are is God's gift (grace) to you. What you can be — faithful, obedient or a backslider, it's all in your daily living — may affect Jesus Christ's response, how he would receive us. Fortunately, he didn't try to exchange his gift for something else. Good or bad, we are his gifts.

I am sharing this enlightenment from Jesus' longest and last prayer before his crucifixion, recorded in the New Testament in John, chapter 17.

John 17:1 states: "Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee." Here, "The hour is come" refers to his crucifixion. "For this cause came I unto this hour."

John 17:2 reads, "Thou has given him power over all flesh. Jesus gives eternal life to as many as thou has given him."

In his prayer, the believers are God the Father's love-gift to Jesus Christ. Jesus repeats this seven times. Seven is the number of divine perfection. Six days God worked. On the seventh day, God rested.

Our Bible is full of references to seven: seven seals, seven trumpets, seven vials, seven candlesticks. The Bible begins with seven days of creation and ends with the many references to sevens in the Book of Revelation. "I manifested thy name to the men (mankind) whom thou gavest me out of the world. ... It was yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept thy word. I pray not for the world, but those you have given me. ... " Here, Jesus is saying that he prays for the believers, not the world.

Talking about his crucifixion: "Now I am leaving the world and leaving them behind." When he calls God "Holy Father," his plea is always in reference to his people or his disciples: "Holy Father, keep them in your care, so that they will be united as one group." Jesus prays to God the Father for safekeeping for his gifts until he returns for them.

Since we are his children, who belonged to God the Father and have been given to his son, Jesus can more readily pray. In this prayer, notice he did not include Judas, for he does not belong.

"Father, I want them with me — these you've given me — so that they can see my glory." The Greek word "see" is "theorosim," from which our English word "theater" came. It doesn't mean seeing an image on a TV screen, but being able to see the person as on a stage and admire the performer's skill.

When we receive our Christmas gifts, we are either happy or very disappointed. In Jesus' prayer, we have learned we are God's gift to Jesus Christ. Do you think Jesus Christ appreciates his gifts?

How useful can we be to Jesus Christ?

What you are is God's gift to you. What you can be is your gift to God.

Joel Fujita, 84, has been a Baptist since 1960 and is a member of Pali View Baptist Church.