Gifts from Above

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17 (NIV)

I read this particular scripture in a devotional this morning and I have not stopped thinking about it since. It reminded me of a chapter in one of John Piper's books "Don't Waste Your Life" (which is a must read!). Chapter 3 in his book is about "Boasting Only In the Cross". The scripture he uses to begin is Galatians 6:14 ("May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."). According to Piper, in this scripture Paul means that, "for the Christian, all other boasting should also be boasting in the cross. All exultation in anything else should be exultation in the cross." So the other scriptures where we are told to rejoice or boast (i.e. Roman 5:2, Romans 5:3-4, 2 Corinthians 12:9, 1 Thessalonians 2:10) mean that when we rejoice or boast in those things, we should also be exulting in the cross of Christ. Why is this the case? "Because for redeemed sinners, every good thing - indeed every bad thing that God turns for good - was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from the death of Christ, sinners get nothing but judgment" and condemnation. (This is GOOD stuff! Trust me you have to read it.)

But one of the parts I remember most about this chapter...that remains etched in my mind...was an illustration Piper used from one of C.S. Lewis' essays "Meditation in a Toolshed":

"I was standing today in the dark toolshed. The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam. From where I stood that beam of light, with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in that place. Everything else was almost pitch-black. I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.

Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes. Instantly the whole previous picture vanished. I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam. Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of the tree outside and beyond that, ninety-odd million miles away, the sun. Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences."

Piper concluded this illustration by saying "The sunbeams of blessing in our lives are bright in and of themselves. They also give light to the ground where we walk. But there is a higher purpose to these blessings. God means for us to do more than stand outside them and admire them for what they are. Even more, he means for us to walk into them and see the sun from which they come. If the beams are beautiful, the sun is even more beautiful. God's aim is not that we merely admire his gifts, but, even more, his glory."

"Therefore every enjoyment in this life and the next that is not idolatry is a tribute to the infinite value of the cross of Christ - the burning center of the glory of God. And thus a cross-centered, cross-exalting, cross-saturated life is a God-glorifying life - the only God-glorifying life. All others are wasted."

Wow! I pray that every blessing, every good and perfect gift, would cause me to ultimately look to the cross. None of the gifts in my life are because I deserve them. May I remember this and boast ONLY in the cross!