The biblical narrative records the best generosity story that has ever been penned in human language. God is the great giver of good things, and everywhere you look, you will see that the generosity of the King of kings is without end.
The creation account shows us his generosity as he places Adam and Eve in a beautiful garden where they have everything they need. In generosity, right after the entrance of sin into the world, God promises to fix what sin has broken.
God generously makes his covenant with Abraham, through whom all the nations on earth will be blessed.
He is generous in delivering his people out of slavery and giving them his law, so that they will thrive. He generously provides manna for them in the wilderness when they aren’t able to provide for themselves.
He generously provides the promised land so they can grow and thrive as a nation. In generosity, he chooses to dwell with them in the tabernacle; his presence is always with them.
In the face of their rebellion, God generously sends prophet after prophet to warn his people and call them back to him.
But one particular verse in the New Testament captures God’s generosity and its culmination. This verse may be the most famous and well-known of all Bible verses:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
I am convinced that this verse not only points us to the ultimate gift of gifts—Jesus—but also summarizes the redemptive story up until this point.
The entire biblical story is about a God who gives his creatures what they do not know they need, what they often do not want, and what they could never earn or do for themselves—but which they cannot live without.
As we read the Bible, it becomes clear that nothing can keep God from giving. Even in the face of his people’s rebellion and idolatry, he continues to give. His generosity is inexhaustible and without limit.
God’s generosity crescendos to the gift of Jesus. Every gift he had given pointed to this final gift. In this gift, we get forgiveness, reconciliation, and the transformation of our hearts. In all of God’s giving, there is no gift like Jesus.
Today, on Christmas Day, God is still showering down his generosity on you. Tomorrow, his generosity will continue. And every day until you are on the other side, he will generously bless you with his presence, promises, power, and grace.
Your life—right here, right now, and into the future—rests in God’s willingness to keep on giving. It is an amazing grace that we are the objects of such unending generosity.
Merry Christmas!
A Prayer for Today: Lord, on this Christmas day, I celebrate the coming of your Son into the world—the greatest gift you have ever given. Thank you for your generosity towards me in the past, the present, and the future. I recognize that there is nothing I have done or nothing I will do that can earn what you have freely given in Jesus Christ, and I’m overwhelmingly grateful for how you have blessed me. My life rests on your willingness to keep on giving, and I recognize that there is no safer place for me to rest. In your mighty Name I pray, amen.
God bless,
Paul Tripp
Discussion Prompt for Children:
• What do you think it means when someone is generous?
• How can we know that God is generous? Why is God more generous than anyone in the world?
• What do you think God’s best gift to us is? Why?
Reflection Questions
1. Why is God the ultimate generous being in the universe? How may have you been misled into believing that God isn’t generous toward you? What is the ultimate proof that God is generous, despite what we may be feeling from time to time?
2. Take a moment to think about the ways God has been generous toward you in the past year. Write down any things that come to mind (big or small areas), and thank him for the ways he has worked in your life. Afterward, ask God to give you the grace to trust him and his ultimate generosity when life and your personal circumstances might communicate the opposite of the truth Scripture lays out for us.
3. In specific ways, how does your life rest on God’s willingness to keep on giving? How have you seen God’s generosity play out in the lives of the family and friends who are closest to you? Why is Jesus the ultimate gift of gifts to help us understand the inexhaustible generosity of God?
4. How does Christmas specifically remind you of the generosity of God? How might God want to exercise his generosity through you to others? What might that specifically look like in the coming days or weeks?
