The Greatest Gift
This is an audio recording of The Greatest Gift the Day 27 entry in Today for Seafarers (Vol. 1) devotional by Jason Zuidema.
Listen to the audio by Sheila Margerrison or read the text below:
“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
It was Christmas ten years ago. I was working as a chaplain in the port of Montreal.
Each Christmas, the churches that support our seafarers’ center carry out a tradition of filling shoeboxes with things for seafarers: soap, a razor, a comb, chocolate, and other small things that seafarers find useful. When a ship comes to port, we go to the ship with a box for each sailor. It is always a pleasure for me to deliver these boxes—I get to see the gratitude of many seafarers for the gifts that other people have given.
One ship came in on a very cold December evening. It was a Chinese ship with a crew of more than 30 men. Few were paid more than few dollars per hour for all their work. I climbed the gangway, said hello, and announced that I had boxes to give to each crewmember. Normally, I would give them to the captain so that he could distribute them. But this time it was different. Everyone I spoke to had almost no English or French in their vocabulary, and I knew only one or two words of Chinese—so it was almost impossible to communicate.
After waving my hands for several minutes and pointing to the gifts, one seafarer finally realized I wanted to give these to the captain for the crew. We climbed to the captain’s cabin, where I presented the boxes. I asked the captain if it would be possible for him to give them to all of the sailors on board. He was very surprised with this question, but his surprise soon turned to joy. Quickly he called all the sailors to come to his cabin. In fact, the sailor who had guided me to the captain’s office had already spread the news to the other seamen, so it wasn’t long before the whole crew arrived at his office.
The captain even gave me the opportunity to read a short passage from the Bible before giving the gifts. Having received these gifts, the men were happy and proud—such a great response for such simple gifts!
This is the kind of joy many of the first Christians experienced. They heard of a free gift and came running to meet Jesus.
Are we the same? Jesus does not simply offer a box of useful items, but the gift of eternal life!
For Further Thought
What is your response to the great gift given by God?
Do you come running to meet him, or do you show resistance to his call?
How can you share this gift with others?
Prayer
Lord, thank you for the gift of Jesus Christ. Thank you for giving that gift even though we don’t deserve it. Please give us joy to live as servants in your kingdom. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
