Just like most human beings, I love to receive gifts. I appreciate all gifts and the expression of kindness that is associated with giving. Have you ever done a Chinese Christmas or White Elephant gift exchange? The purpose is to give a random or "gag" gift that goes into a pile. Each person draws a number to determine the order of gift selection. You have two options. You can either choose from the pile or take someone else's previously opened gift. Obviously, the advantage goes to the last one to draw. Although fun, I do not get too excited about the gifts involved in these events. White Elephant gifts are not as special to me because I usually have no need for them. I remember one year drawing an ugly mailbox cover that no one in their right mind would ever use to decorate their mailbox. I drew that gift early, and much to my chagrin, no one took it from me.
However, there a certain gifts that I treasure. What makes a gift valuable to me is the fact that I have a need for it. Jesus died on the cross to meet a need for me I could have never met for myself. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9not by works, so that no one can boast.” This gift is so valuable because it is the one I need most. Every gift I have received for Christmas will eventually perish, but the gift of eternal life lasts forever. Thank you, Jesus.
What an immense grace God is giving me! But how did I come to deserve it after so many sins? Truly our God is a God of mercy! He loads you with gifts at the very time you're giving Him no thought, or worse, betraying him. (Carlo Caretto) Romans 5:6-8 says, "6You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
The story of Alaskan Mushers delivering a serum is a great example of a life-saving mission to meet a need. Long before the legendary Iditarod Dog Sled Race was first run in 1973, a more important race took place in Alaska. On January 21, 1925, the lives of countless children in Nome were at stake. An epidemic of diphtheria had broken out, and the gold rush city did not have a sufficient amount of antitoxin. Dr. Curtis Welch telegraphed Fairbanks, Anchorage, Seward, and Juneau, asking for help. There were 300,000 units of the serum at a hospital in Anchorage, and it was the only serum in the entire state.
The problem was to get it to Nome in the shortest time possible. With the Bering Sea frozen and no railroad or roads extending to Nome's remote location, dog teams were the only solution. The hospital packed the 300,000 units were packed in an insulated container and transported them to Nenana on an overnight train.
Once the serum arrived, a 674-mile relay race by dog teams awaited. Mushers who delivered the mail normally covered that distance in a month. The first musher took the insulated cylinder of serum 52 miles, where he passed the lifesaving baton to the second musher, who traveled 31 miles. From musher to musher the relay continued until a total of 20 dog-sled drivers had cooperated to get the needed medicine to Nome by February 2nd. The life-saving serum arrived in only 127 ½ hours due to the cooperative effort of individuals willing to brave the austere Alaskan wilderness, sub-zero temperatures, and blinding blizzards.
This life-saving mission is a picture of how God works through many people over time to bring salvation to those who need it. These heroes of the faith include godly grandparents, Sunday school teachers, faithful friends, spiritual mentors.Jesus is truly our greatest gift. Because of the gift of Jesus, we are now destined to win. Nothing is worth more than eternal life. No investment has ever done more for mankind. And our greatest need was met in the indescribable gift of Jesus. Merry Christmas!
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