Gift or Giver?

I have a wonderful devotional book that a friend gave me for my birthday called "Grace For The Moment" by Max Lucado. One day when I opened it up to read my devotional for the morning it talked about how we often focus on the gifts instead of the giver. As I went throughout the day I started to think about Mr. Lucado's words and some of my own thoughts began to form.

Often when my life is difficult or frustrating I think about what heaven will be like, streets of gold, the crystal sea and so on. I get so excited about what a wonderful place it is and how excited I am to go there someday that I forget the most important thing about heaven. I'm going to be there with God!

I can walk beside Jesus, talk to my Heavenly Father, learn about the Holy Spirit's role in my life. As a human I was created to worship God, to be in communion with Him but while I'm on earth I will always fall short in that relationship. When I get to heaven sin will no longer damage that relationship. For all of eternity I will dwell in the house of the Lord, with the Lord FOREVER!

Can you imagine how amazing that will be? I can't but I know that I want to take Mr. Lucado's advice and focus on the one who gives the gifts instead of the gifts themselves.

This is kind of a confusing subject I admit so let me put in another way. Every year when I'm buying Christmas gifts I look for the perfect gift for each person. I want to find exactly the right gift for each person. It's not so much about the gift but about what it represents, that perfect gift represents that I have a relationship with them, that I know them well enough to buy them that perfect gift. I want them to be excited about the gift but I would be hurt if they focused so much on the gift that they didn't even bother to say thanks.