Returning gifts: DON'T do it to this Person!

Long lines of people in the stores, returning gift-after-gift, things that didn't fit, were the wrong color, or any of several excuses provided...simply because he/she didn't really want the gift, and plans to get something else with the refund money!

That's part of the commercialized holidays.  Returning gifts and getting cash or credit back to use as one likes.  OK, but don't try to do that with God!  "It was nice of You, God; I mean, it's the thought that counts, right?  But I really don't think this is something I can use...it doesn't fit my life.  But...thanks anyway!"

God gives us so many gifts, but we don't always appreciate them.  Yet they are the best things that He could ever let into our lives. Do you think He loves you so little or so carelessly that He'd give you something that didn't work or was of no use?

"It doesn't fit, Lord; it's the wrong size.  And I don't really like the way it looks one me."
GOD:  Don't worry.  Once you accept it, I can make all the parts mesh together so well that you'll find it was tailor-made for you.

"It's the wrong color, Lord.  This shade doesn't really show me to advantage.  Got it in another color?"
GOD: Don't worry  Once you accept it, I can sharpen your perception so that you can see it through my eyes and wonder why you ever though it wouldn't suit you.

"Um...I'm not sure if I'll ever need that...I mean, what use is it to me?"
GOD: How about asking to what use you can put it for others?  By the way, when you use the gift to help someone else, you'll find you are blessed, too.  (It's a pretty neat side-effect, if I say so Myself.)
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Here are a couple of reasons why I think we don't always appreciate God's gifts, and either ignore them or waste them...or even tell Him He must have made a mistake:

1) His gifts don't always coincide with OUR idea of what we need and want, we're wary and we tend to stick to the more familiar and "safe" side of things.  (As if being in God's hands weren't the safest place one could ever be!)

2) We don't always recognize his gifts when they come. Our human-ness makes it impossible to fully understand and perceive what God gives us and why.

When these doubts (and, yes, sometimes excuses) about what God does through, to and for us, clear up and our soul can see a little more into the heart of our loving God, then we realize that each gift is a perfect fit, is exactly the right color, and enriches our lives (and those of others) through its use.
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As we start a new year, may God help us all be more attentive to what He's doing, so we can appreciate how He makes everything "work together for good", and neither waste nor question his made-to-measure gifts. They come from a God who loves us more than we could ever imagine.

                                                   HAPPY NEW YEAR!!