Gift Receipt

Most times, when you purchase an item at a store for someone at Christmas, the salesperson will ask if you would like a gift receipt. A gift receipt is a purchase record that you can give to the person to know where they can return or exchange the present if they need to. It is a good idea since the gift may not be what you need or want, the right size if a clothing item, or you already have the same item. The gift receipt allows you to make your return. It is a good thing. Gift giving can be a difficult task. 

Some people are excellent gift-givers. That is, they know how to shop for a person. They find or create gifts that match the person’s personality. When you open their gifts, you know immediately that they have put much thought and time into selecting your gift. On the other hand, some people don’t like shopping for others or gift-giving. They want to get the entire experience over as quickly as possible. These may be your late shoppers who have to settle with what they can find. Most people are somewhere between the two.

In the Gospel of Matthew, in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks about God as the perfect gift giver. Jesus is teaching about prayer and how God invites us to ask of God. In Matthew 7: 7-11, we read: 

Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give your children good gifts, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Jesus teaches that God gives his children good things. Even if evil people can give good gifts to their children, how much more so will God, who is infinitely good, do so much greater. God knows exactly what we need, and out of his great love lavishes His goodness all over us. God gives out hos His abundance, blessings upon blessings. When it comes to the gifts of God, no receipts are required.