Among the gifts that thrilled me most was a little red wagon that I received on the Christmas following my sixth birthday. I distinctly recall pushing it about the house on Christmas day and telling my mother that I was thankful to Santa Claus for bringing it. She informed me that my parents had something to do with Santa bringing it, information that might have confused me, but I don't recall that it did. It is interesting that I remember that conversation after all these years. The little wagon was my joy for a long time, and it is associated with the earliest religious experience that I recall. One day in company with older kids I pulled the wagon some distance from home. When a storm suddenly came upon us, we all made it for home. Since I was younger and had my wagon to pull, the others ran off and left me far behind. As I ran and pulled the wagon bounced up and down on the rocky road. Dark clouds loomed overhead and there were flashes of lightning. I was frightened, whether of the storm or of God I know not, but I clearly remember coming to a dead stop, getting on my knees alongside my wagon and praying. I have no idea now what I said then, but it was surely a fervent prayer for a six-year old and an effective one since I got home safely. While that little wagon was a delightful gift, it was hardly an inexpressible one, for I had no problem telling all about it to anyone that would listen.

A gift that was a close second to the wagon was my first suit of clothes, which one of my older brothers gave me a year or so later, but not at Christmas. It had long pants and a vest. It was the vest that intrigued me most. My brother put his own hat on the back of my head, had me stand with my legs parted and my hands on my hips displaying the vest, and had my picture taken with him standing at my side. That picture, afterwards enlarged, yet graces the old albums of the family archives. That brother is now 85 and we are still close. While he gave me one of my most memorable gifts, it was not indescribable.

I have never received an indescribable gift from any human being, nor has anyone else, for we live in a finite world. Everything, even gifts, are within well-defined boundaries. Gifts, like all the world around us, all pass away. The most elegant gift soon fades and becomes irrelevant and unimportant. The little red wagon and the suit with long pants and a vest are cherished memories, but they have long since vanished and no longer matter. So it is with all the things of this world.

The one indescribable gift comes only from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. It is indescribable or inexpressible because Jesus himself is. He defies description and definition because he is the image of the invisible God, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see (1 Tim. 6:16). To the degree that God's glory and likeness can be revealed Jesus Christ reveals them. To the extent that we can comprehend Christ we can comprehend God. The gift of Christ is the gift of God himself. If ever we presume to comprehend to any substantial degree, we are to remember the poetry of Paul: "Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" (Ro. 11:33)

While the apostle attempts to describe Christ to the Philippians with such language as "He is before all things, and in Him all things consist" and "It pleased the Father that in Him all the fulness should dwell," it is evident that Jesus remains inexplicable. While in 1 Cor. 1:24 Paul writes of "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God," it is clear that he refers to a subject that is beyond all understanding. It is revealed to us that Christ is that Word that was in the beginning with God and that that Word became flesh and dwelt among us as the true light of God, but who can comprehend it?

At our congregation here in Denton we are doing an usual thing for a Church of Christ: Like other denominations we are for four Sundays before Christmas lighting the four candles of Advent (the only Church of Christ I know that does so!). The short ceremony is beautiful, meaningful, and spiritual, and it involves the youth. During our sharing time I suggested that we could also have "the four Scriptures of Advent" for everyone to memorize, and I am giving one for each of the Sundays. The first Advent Sunday I chose 2 Cor. 8:9: "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich."

The second Sunday I selected the passage we are studying in this piece, "Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift." Next Lord's day, which is the third Sunday of Advent, I will give them Col. 1:19, "It pleased the Father that in Christ all the fulness should dwell," and on the fourth Sunday it will be Jn. 1:14, "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."

All of these point to what I am saying in this piece, that God's philanthropy is so magnanimous, his grace so overwhelming, and his mercy so abundant- and all these so wondrously manifested in Jesus Christ - that we are so lost in wonder and praise as to join the apostle in the grand doxology Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

That it is a gift, God's free gift to sinful man, cannot be over emphasized. We cannot be good enough to merit it. We cannot work hard enough to earn it. We cannot be powerful enough to demand it. It is not ours because we are good but we are good because it is ours. The free gift is unconditional. God offers it with no strings attached. We only have to accept it through faith and obedience. While the free gift of grace is unconditional, the appropriation of the gift is conditional.

We don't have to burden ourselves with all the worries, uncertainties, fears, and guilt. We don't have to be scared to live and afraid to die. We don't have to be uncertain of our salvation. We don't have to keep trying to be good enough, faithful enough, obedient enough, going to church enough, praying enough. We don't have to worry that our sins and shortcomings will keep us from going to heaven. We cannot trust in our own goodness or in our own strength. We are saved by God's grace. We must learn to let go of the old I-can-do-it-myself religion and accept God's free gift, the unspeakable gift of Jesus Christ. That is the grace of God. Jesus' self-imposed poverty makes us rich.

And that is the only riches that really matter. All other wealth goes the way of all the world. That is why it is the indescribable, inexpressible, unspeakable gift. And that is why we should thank God for such a gift. And that is why ingratitude, according to Luther at least, is the worst of all sins. —the Editor