Voices: The gift waiting on your doorstep

Imagine a gift.

You open the door one morning, and there it is on your doorstep. You would think it’s another Amazon delivery, but Amazon delivers brown boxes with the blue smile on them.

This one is a white-wrapped box with a red ribbon.

You check your Ring camera. You see no one recorded making the delivery. Yet, sometime in the night, someone dropped the thing off on your front doorstep, so first thing that morning, you’d find it as you headed out for a new day.

You pick the gift up. You shake it gently. There seems to be several things inside the box. You pull it to your ear to make sure there is no ticking noise. You check your hands to make sure there is no white powder falling from it. Of course, you are suspicious.

There is no note on the gift. You look both ways outside your door. You then walk down the front sidewalk, wondering if you can catch a glimpse of some nice neighbor who dropped something off for you. But again, there was no one on the Ring camera.

Opening the gift

With this, you go back inside your house, carrying the white package with the red ribbon. You lay the gift on your kitchen table. You take some scissors and cut the red ribbon. You then begin to pull open the shiny white wrapping paper. Beneath, you see a box.

You take the scissors and cut the tape holding the box flaps shut. Inside are all kinds of little gifts—little in size, but not necessarily little in value.

What amazes you is every gift inside the box is what you have been wanting, things you have been praying for.

You cannot get over the kindness of the stranger who dropped off the box. But then again, this could not be from a stranger, for no stranger would know what you have been needing and wanting. No, this must be from a friend or a loving family member. But who?

You will ask around. You will gently investigate over the rest of the day. But more, you will enjoy the gifts you have received in that white box with red ribbon.

You are so grateful: “How did they know? And what great timing!”

The gift of every day

Every day is a gift from the Lord—white in purity, wrapped with a beautiful red ribbon sanctified by the blood of Jesus.

With each gift of a new day, there are blessings awaiting us: answers to prayers, help in time of need, acts of love, opportunities to serve, new things of God to discover, fellowship with the Lord and others, longings fulfilled, problems to work through to see God’s goodness once settled.

Every day is a gift from God. As we unwrap the gift minute by minute, blessings overflow.

I have been praying each morning as I picture that gift wrapped in white, tied with a red ribbon. I imagine, as I begin my mornings, the satisfaction and unbelievable joy I will feel come evening time.

The Lord is good. His mercy never ends. He is the giver of all good things.

“Lord, thank you for the gift of this new day. Help me to serve you in it, to walk with you through it. I cannot wait to see the blessings you have for me today. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

Johnny Teague is the senior pastor of Church at the Cross in West Houston and the author of several books, including his newest Thomas Paine Returns with Common Sense. His website is johnnyteague.com. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.