Receive His Gift
You are a beloved daughter of God, you are a cherished son of God, and He has gifted you His perfect, holy Son.
Gift Giving
Gift giving is a social custom that spans all cultures, civilisations, and millennia. Throughout time, people have given gifts to each other to strengthen relationships, express love and gratitude, and mark important events like weddings, birthdays, and holidays. And humans are not the only ones of God’s creations to give gifts to each other! Among many other examples we could point to, penguins are known to give shiny pebbles to their prospective mates, and bonobos (cousins of the chimpanzee) give fruit to expand their circle of friendship.
What gifts have you given? Think of a time when you found—or made—the perfect gift for someone you love. You just knew the gift was exactly what this loved one wanted and something they would treasure. What was the gift? Was it for your mother? a friend? your child? a teacher? your grandfather? How did you feel when you found this gift? How did you feel when you thought about this person you love opening the gift? Similarly, when did someone give you the perfect gift, and what was it like to receive it?
My Father’s Gift to Me
When I was about seven years old, living with my parents in Arabia, a children’s film called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was released. The film is about a magical car that can drive itself, float on water, and even fly! I knew that back home in England they made a miniature toy car just like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and oh, how I wanted one! You could pull a lever, and the toy car’s wings would pop out! My father went on a business trip to England and asked if I wanted him to bring anything back for me, and I told him how very much I would like to have one of those Chitty Chitty Bang Bang cars.
He came back from his trip, and no car appeared. I was very sad and thought he must have forgotten. But about 10 days later was my birthday, and a little package, beautifully wrapped, was waiting for me. With great anticipation, and hardly daring to hope too much, I opened the gift and found my car. I was so happy that I cried. I pulled the lever, and the wings popped out, just like the car in the film! How I thanked my father for this most treasured gift. I played with that car for years and kept it for many more. I think my dad loved giving me that car at least as much as I loved receiving it.
Giving, Accepting and Opening, and Receiving
We can think of gift giving as having three parts to it:
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The giving of the gift, where the giver selects, makes, or prepares the gift and presents it to the loved one. This involves thoughtful intention on the part of the giver to give something meaningful.
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The accepting and opening of the gift, when the recipient accepts the gift from the giver—often with expressions of surprise, gratitude, and excitement—before opening it, sometimes untying a bow and unwrapping the package to discover what the gift is.
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And then there is perhaps the most important part, the receiving of the gift. To receive a gift sincerely given is so much more than accepting and then opening it. It is more, even, than recognising the worth of the gift and expressing gratitude to the giver. To truly receive a gift, we come to value it for ourselves, put it to full use in our lives, and then remember with thankfulness the giver.
Receiving a gift is not passive but an intentional and meaningful process that goes far beyond merely opening a package. To receive is to appreciate and connect with both the gift and the heart of the giver in a way that strengthens the bonds between the giver and receiver. Thinking of that toy car brings back a host of golden memories, as I feel once again my father’s deep love and care for me, represented by that gift and countless other generous acts.
Our Heavenly Father’s Gifts
Our Heavenly Father has innumerable gifts of light and truth prepared to shower down on each of us, His treasured children. They flow from our Bounteous Giver like a wellspring in the wilderness from His benevolent heart. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” In our covenant bond with the Father, He is ever the Giver and we the humble recipient.
The Greatest of All the Father’s Gifts, Through Which All Others Flow
But we could receive nothing without the greatest of all the Father’s gifts, His beloved Lamb, His Son, Jesus Christ. All of our Father’s gifts flow from and are activated by the Saviour’s willing offering in Gethsemane and on the cross and His triumphant Resurrection. Jesus Christ, our merciful Redeemer, is the supreme gift from our Father of lights. “In the gift of his Son hath God prepared [for us] a more excellent way.”
One All-Encompassing Gift of Eternal Truth
I would like to talk about one all-encompassing gift of eternal truth that underpins our ability to receive all else our Father desires to endow us with—a vital gift of knowledge that, when fully accepted and received deep in the soul, contextualises the joys and hardships of life and our unanswered questions: It is that we really are God’s children. That truth is breathtaking! Stunning! And it is not figurative.
Imagine you are hearing this for the first time! You really are His cherished daughter. You really are His precious son. And the path you are on is His plan of happiness. With His omniscient love, He knows exactly who you were before you were sent to earth and what you have experienced so far in your mortal life, and He has mercifully planned for your every tomorrow. And oh, how He yearns to one day have you return to Him, to receive the supreme intent of all His beautiful gifts, eternal life with Him.
The question is not whether this gift of truth is real but whether we will discover and receive it. The gift has already been bestowed upon us by the Father. The price for the ultimate purpose of this gift has already been paid by the Saviour. But if you have been taught this, said this, and sung this truth for years, maybe the awesome wonder of it has long since faded and you no longer feel its power and peace.
If this priceless gift of understanding—and all the goodness, peace, and hope that flow from it—is left unaccepted, unopened, and unreceived, what a terrible loss for us! What a sadness for the Giver! “For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.”
I invite you to receive, either for the first time or to a greater extent than ever before, the magnificent realisation that you truly are God’s beloved child. You must undo the bow, tear off the wrapping paper, open the box, and actively receive with grateful humility a true, pure understanding of this foundational truth. The Holy Spirit can bear witness to your heart that you are indeed a child of the Most High.
When you welcome this majestic reality into your very soul and feel both the comfort and the thrill of it, your entire paradigm shifts! You can feel His love, hear His voice, and recognise His hand, no matter what is happening, or not happening, in your life. You can redefine how you see yourself and others. Your covenant bond with your Saviour becomes even stronger, and through the lens of this sweet gift, life takes on new brilliance, beauty, and hope.
Please, will you pray to understand if you are truly receiving this transformative knowledge deep in your soul? Will you please accept the gift? Will you do so more deeply, more freely, more abundantly than you ever have before—and in so doing be showered with all of those other gifts that come with it?
Receiving This Gift of Eternal Truth
You may be wondering, “What do I have to do to receive this gift from God?” Well, actually, nothing. It is a gift from the Giver. It is simply a fact. Just let it in. You are His child. You are beloved of Him. Do not complicate it. Do not block the receiving of this gift with thoughts that you are somehow undeserving. The reality is none of us is “deserving”—all the Father’s gifts are received only through the merits, mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, but how His generous heart longs for each of His children to receive them! Then, as your new or renewed understanding dawns on you, rejoice in thanking the Giver of this gift.
Since finding my faith in my mid-20s, I have awakened to the realisation that I truly am a son of God. The more fully I internalise this gift, the more keenly I know who I am and how completely I am loved. Some things that have helped me grow in understanding are the words of scripture, my patriarchal blessing, temple worship, serving others, expressing gratitude, and sacred prayer with my Father. I marvel at how earlier sorrow, pain, and grief in my life would have been reframed, soothed, and much of it overcome had I known this beautiful truth.
Come unto Christ and Receive
Moroni exhorts us to “deny not the gifts of God” but to “come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift.” You can come to Christ with confidence in His loving-kindness and receive all His gifts of joy, peace, hope, light, truth, revelation, knowledge, and wisdom—with your head held high, your arms outstretched, and your hands open, ready to receive. And you can receive these gifts because you are secure and grounded in the knowledge that you are a beloved daughter of God, you are a cherished son of God, and He has gifted you His perfect, holy Son to redeem you, justify you, and sanctify you.
You are a child of God. This is not just a nice song we sing. Will you please accept, open, and receive this gift of knowledge and understanding from Him? Will you hold it close as the precious treasure it is? Re-receive this gift, or perhaps truly receive it for the very first time, and let it transform every aspect of your life. This is the more excellent way God has prepared for you through the gift of His Son. You really are that you might have joy! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.