I’m not sure why I have struggled so much writing this post, but I have. I’ve been anticipating this birthday for quite some time. It’s a big one, and I think that as it’s gotten closer, my emotions about it have kept me distant. If you’ll hang with me for a few paragraphs of insecurity, and hear me out as I try to sort it all out, I’ll end with the clarity God keeps speaking to me continually, and I obviously keep needing to hear…year after year…

I write a lot about my faith through the lens of marriage and family, motherhood and mentorship, and recently I’ve wrestled with insecurity as I navigate these relationships in different seasons of life. Maybe that’s why words seem sparser and harder the closer to this new number, new decade, and new season I get. It’s been looming. I’ve been excited, or at least expectant, but now that it’s here, so are all the emotions surrounding it!

Not only is my age changing (to a number that seemed so far away not too long ago), but my body is changing as well (in ways I thought I could keep at bay a little longer). Our family is changing, too, growing in number, but also in distance.

I guess in the midst of all the changes, it only makes sense that my emotions would change as well. Some days I am encouraged and optimistic, while other days, I seem to struggle to pull it together, make sense of it all, and just keep on keeping on.

Which finally brings me to the point of this post…

I think most of you can agree with me that gifts are pretty cool! Whether we are giving them or receiving them, the initial thought, intentionality, and purpose of gift giving is to bless the recipient. I think we all desire to show our love and gratitude for others in the gifts we give them.

I’m sure like me, you have received gifts throughout your life that have been meaningful to you in ways words can’t describe. And while I don't remember every gift I’ve ever been given, there are a few special ones that stand out to me — my husband, my kids, my extended family, my friends. As you can see, I’m a people person, and people, and time with my people specifically, are always gifts to me.

And I believe, the older I get, the more precious they are! God wired us for relationship, and I realize now more than ever my relationships are such special gifts! I am grateful to still have both my parents and both my in-laws (still married for over 50 years), and my 96 year old grandmother (who just celebrated her birthday a week ago). Life is precious. It is a treasured gift indeed!

Fifty years ago, on the day I was born, God gave me the gift of physical life, and I am so grateful for that gift! But even more than that, forty years ago, I accepted God’s free gift of salvation when I was born again, made alive in Christ, and received the gift of eternal life — which is truly the greatest gift I have ever been given!

Because the truth is, none of us are promised tomorrow, and as precious as this earthly life is, it will one day end.

So, as I prayed and wrestled through what to share with you this week, a specific passage of scripture kept coming to me…

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:7-18, ESV)

If you’re still reading, thank you for hanging with me! I know this has been a bit wordy, but on heels of the profundity of that passage, I’d love to share a little more with you about this gift and these “treasure in jars of clay” Paul mentions at the beginning of this passage.

Paul and Timothy were those jars of clay, those earthen vessels, as other translations say. God used and still uses ordinary, flawed, fragile people like Paul and Timothy, and even you and me to house the glorious, divine, powerful message of the Gospel to ensure all power and authority is credited to Him and not our human ability.

He not only gives us this great gift of salvation, He entrusts us to give it to others. It truly is the greatest gift I’ve ever received, which is why I can’t keep it to myself.

First of all, God loves you (us).

The creator of the universe created it all with you and me (and all humanity) in mind. He loves us, and He desires a relationship with us, but when He created us, He gave us the free will to choose to love Him or not. And it’s because of that free will that we sometimes choose to go our own way which is called sin because we miss the mark of the standard set by Holy God.

Secondly, sin separates us from God.

You see, we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, ESV). We literally, because of our sin, are separated from Him and spiritually dead. As long as we go our own way, do our own thing, and live by our own standards, we stay separated from God.

But...

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, ESV)

A price had to be paid because a way had to be made.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, ESV)

God loved us so much that He sent his son Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin and reconcile us back to Him.

“but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2, ESV)

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, ESV)

Jesus’s death was the price that had to be paid, and His resurrection was the way that was made.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” (John 14:6, ESV)

His great love was manifested in His amazing grace.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9, ESV)

If you’ve never accepted God’s free gift of salvation through confession and repentance of your sins and trusting God’s forgiveness and righteousness to cleanse you from them and reconcile you back to Him, would you do that today?

It is truly the greatest gift you will ever receive!

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13, ESV)

When we believe in Jesus Christ, and accept His free gift of salvation, we never have to fear death. Our bodies may be wasting away, but our spirits are being renewed day by day, by the power of the Holy Spirit Himself, through Jesus Christ, the very son of God, on authority of our Heavenly Father, a Holy God who lavishly loves us throughout eternity, before the day we were born, after the day we die, and every day in between. He not only made you and gave you physical life, He loves you enough to reconcile you back to Him and give you eternal life through His Son.

Oh friend, it is the most important decision you’ll ever make and the greatest gift you’ll ever receive!

For fifty years I’ve lived in this mortal body that will eventually die, in this fallen world with all its strife, but praise God I have been given the amazing gift of eternal life, and I will continue to proclaim His truth for the rest of my life!

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The Greatest Gift I’ve Ever Received: On turning fifty and what I firmly believe.