"How Much Did I Pay for My Birthday Present?"

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Dear Children: You all like to have a birthday, don’t you? And if I could see you, you would tell me what nice birthday gifts your father, mother, brother or sister had given you.
Now, I am going to ask you a question, and I am pretty sure you will all smile at my foolishness. Never mind! this is my question:
“How much did you give for your birthday gifts?”
O! You will all answer (even the little sister of only four).
“Of course we didn’t give anything; father and mother bought them, and gave them to us.”
You are quite right, and I am sure you will think with me, that if you took some money in your hand to pay mother and father, they would feel quite grieved. But now I want to ask, “How are you treating God, and all His beautiful gifts?”
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
When I meet children, and ask them if God loves them, they nearly always say,
“God will love me if I am good.”
“God will love me if I love Him,” which you know is really saying, I must give God a little bit of my goodness, or a little bit (or a good large bit) of my love, before He will give me His love, or let me know Jesus Christ, and have eternal life.
Now, dear children, this is all wrong and it is treating God as you would not think of treating your mother or father. God gives you His love, because He is love, and because He loves to be the Giver. You cannot deserve His love: you deserve to be punished for your sins, but because “God is love” He gave His Son to die instead of you, to be your Saviour. He gives you eternal life. He gives you salvion freely, it is
“Without Money and Without Price.”
A tiny girl was once reading to her grandfather, and as she was so small, she had to spell out a good deal of it, so she read very slowly: “That we might know the things which are freely given to us of God.” 1 Cor. 2:1212Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. (1 Corinthians 2:12).
“Stop! child,” said her grandfather, “you have made a mistake. It does not say freely.”
“O! yes, it does, grandfather,” said the little girl.
“Go back, and see,” he answered.
“That we might know the things which are f-1-e-e-l-y given to us of God,” spelled out the child.
“Well,” said the old man, “I never knew it said that before.”
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Romans 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24).
ML 11/19/1944