The Gift of Choice
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. - Luke 1:38
The gift of choice; that’s what many people will receive this Christmas.
Gift cards are the gifts of choice. You get to choose how you use it. Some are tied to a specific store, but others can be used anywhere, with even greater freedom of choice. You decide what you want, exactly what you want, then you use the card, and it’s yours. In many ways gift cards are double gifts – the gift of the item itself and the gift of getting to choose it.
I think that is why gift cards are so popular (besides the fact that they are so much easier to buy, and they keep the giver from having to make a difficult choice of finding the right gift. Kind of ironic.) We love to choose. We love the power of choice, the freedom of choice. We decide what we want and we get it.
Choice is one of the greatest gifts we have ever received as human beings. God gives us the ability to choose, and He gives us the opportunity to choose. The gift of choice was part of the Garden of Eden experience for the first man and woman. The gift of choice is ours as part of being in the human race.
How we use this gift and what we spend it on says so much about each of us. Our choices define us.
Anne Frank wrote, “Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First, we make our choices. Then our choices make us.’
Good choices enrich our lives. Bad choices deplete our lives. We make choices every single day, thousands of them every day. Every choice matters.
How and why we make our choices say so much about us.
When we look at the Christmas story, a lot is written about why God chose Mary to be the mother of the Son of God, Jesus our Savior.
Why did He choose her?
God is all knowing. His ways and thoughts are so much higher than ours. He had a good reason, and He doesn’t always explain all of His reasons for choosing what He does.
But there is perhaps a clue to “Why Mary?” in her response to being chosen. It was such a simple and humble statement:
And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. - Luke 1:38
“I am the servant of the Lord – Let it be to me according to your word.”
In other words, Mary said, “Ok, God, You choose. You choose the direction of my life. You choose what happens to me. I choose to be your servant. I choose to follow Your directions. I choose You.”
Her gift to God was to give back to Him her gift of choice.
And perhaps that is the greatest gift we can give God ourselves.
“Here I am, God. You choose. You choose who and what you want me to become and do. I choose You.”
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, the Savior, who chose to become one of us, to live as one of us, then die for us, and to rise again.
He chose to empty Himself and become a servant, to obey even to the cross. He chose this so we could choose.
This Christmas, (and actually every day of our lives) we can choose to give to Christ, the greatest gift of all, the gift of our choice.
That is the most valuable thing we possess in our lives, the ability to choose. His gift to us can become our gift back to Him.
What do you give the God who has everything? The gift of choice.
This Christmas, take time to examine your choices, your motives, your heart, your opportunities. Look them over. Reflect on them. Look at them from every angle.
And then, when you are ready, take your choices, lay them at the feet of Jesus, (or at the manger), and say to Him,
“Here, Jesus, You choose.”