‘Tis the season of gift giving. Have you found the perfect gift yet? There’s that someone on your list that appears to have everything and doesn’t need anything. Yet the gift that reveals your heart and warms theirs is an unspoken expectation.

I already sense your frustration. So put down the list. Listen to the truth of Christmas told from the perspective of a Father—a Father who knew exactly what to give in an impossible situation. His gift perfectly reveals the heart of the giver.

His heart during Creation and the Fall

Peer for a moment into a distant eternity. Before the tick of a clock, before the words, “Let there be . . .,” the Father devised a plan. Foreseeing a need, the Father, Son, and Spirit planned a gift of grace: “This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time . . .” (2 Timothy 1:9). Perfect unity in love moved them to create our beautiful world, but they looked further into the future to your creation and entrance into the world. The Father was committed and then spoke, “Let there be . . .” The Word was with the Father (John 1:1,2), and the Spirit hovered over the waters as the Trinity created the world and life. In his love, he prepared for your life too.

The Father’s commentary on the world revealed perfection—“It was very good!” (Genesis 1:31). But the man and woman who had everything determined that they needed one more thing. They decided to shop for themselves and made a hasty purchase of “knowledge.” Listening to the serpent’s lies led to a lust for more, and they bit what was forbidden. The cost was the loss of a perfect relationship as well as eternity itself. All creation would pay that price.

The problem of sin seemed impossible to resolve. Eternal love and perfect justice collided. Man and woman hid in hopelessness. They expected the Father to immediately punish them, to perhaps start over. Instead the Lord recalled his plan from eternity and put it into words: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). The Father’s heart of love was revealed in the gift that he would give. The problem of sin could only be solved in the giving of himself—in the giving of his one and only Son.

His heart is committed