Take the Gift

I heard an interesting, and oddly humorous story the other day. My cousin and his wife have a little girl, maybe 3 or 4 years old, somewhere around there, and she has taken a liking to toy wooden trains. My cousin and his wife took their little daughter to the store because they wanted to buy her a toy train that she could take home and play with when ever she wanted to. They wanted to give her this gift, so they went to the store so she could pick one out for them to buy for her. Like any good toy store, there was one of these wooden toy train sets set up in the middle of the store for the children to play with. Well, as a child naturally does, when she saw the train set all set up and ready to play with, she immediately went over to it and began playing with the train. This is a child being a child, naturally, but the story continues. The reason, of course, that they were at the store was so that she could pick out a train set for her parents to buy so that she could have a train set of her own that she could play with at home. Her parents told her that she needed to pick out the train set that she wanted. She continued to play with the train set that was in the store. They told her once again, “darling, come and pick out a toy train set so that we can go back home.” She continued to play with the set in the store. They told her several more times. They even told her that they were only going to stay for 5 more minutes and then they were going to leave. She continued to play in the middle of the store. When the time came for them to leave, they took her by the hand and said to her, we are going home now. And as expected, she answered with the complaint, “but I haven’t picked out a train yet!” They explained to her that she had ample time to pick out a train set, but she didn’t do so even after repeated instruction.

This story is a true story, it really did happen. This story is also a true story in the sense that it is happening to people all around me, and even inside me everyday. In this story can be found a chilling parallel to what we as children of God are doing with our lives that God has given us. We can draw a parallel between the toy train store and this life that we live. We can draw a parallel between the parents of the little girl and our real Father, God that is, the creator of the universe and everything in it. We can draw a parallel between the toy train in the store and the pleasures of this world and the toy train that the little girl was given a chance to pick out and the joy of knowing and following Jesus Christ. We can draw a parallel between the point at which the parents told the little girl it was time to go and the point at which our Father will tell us that our time in this world, in this life is up.

Let’s start with the parallel of the toy store and this life that you and I are living right now as well as the parallel of the parents of the little girl and God. The little girl was given a specific amount of time to choose one thing that would make her happy after her time at the store. Her parents graciously gave her an opportunity to possess something great (at least in her point of view). In a similar fashion, God, our Father, our real parent, has given us a finite amount of time to choose to possess something that will make us infinitely happy after our time here is over. He graciously (I say graciously because we are very undeserving of this gift) gave us an opportunity to choose Jesus Christ as our Lord, as our savior, and choose to follow Him.

Now, let’s take a closer look at the parallel between the toy train and Jesus Christ. First of all, let’s look at what the little girl did. Instead of picking out what her parents wanted to give her, she sat in the middle of the store and played with the train set that was already set up in the store, neglecting to pick one out to take with her. So, as we look at this as it relates to our situation, we so often concentrate on the pleasures of this world, food, entertainment, money (that’s a big one), sex, even religion, and we forget the gift that has been laid before us. We get so wrapped up in the enjoyment of the here and now that we loose perspective on what is to come. We focus on what can make us happy right now and we loose sight of the state that we will be in when our time is up. We sit and play in the middle of the store, when the perfect train set is all around us on the shelf, waiting for us to pick it up and make it our own. We live in what is set directly before us and ignore what is promised us. I have to say here, that I am guilty of this. I so often get wrapped up in the here and now that I sometimes loose sight of what I’m doing here. It’s very easy to do.

Let’s take a look now at the parallel of the point at which the little girl’s parents tell her it’s time to go and the point at which God tells us that it’s time to go. When the little girl learns that she now must leave without having picked out a toy train of her own, she protests, saying, “But you promised me a train!” The parents respond to this objection with the reply, “We gave you time, instruction, multiple warnings that we were going to leave, and even let you play with the store’s train for a while, but you didn’t pick out yours. You don’t have one now, not because we didn’t give it to you, but because you didn’t take it.” In much the same way, many, many people come to the end of their lives on earth and say, “But you promised me Jesus!” And God, Jesus, will reply with, “I gave you plenty of time, I told you where to find me, I told you that your time was limited, I put signs all around you and told you that you would have to leave this world soon, and I even let you enjoy the things of this world for a while. You now don’t have me, not because I have denied you of me, but because you did not take me. I presented myself to you, and you simply weren’t interested.” We protest, but when the end comes, when our time has run out, it is too late to go back and choose to accept and follow Christ. When our time has run out, we see how our choices during our time in this store we call life have effected our time away from the store. If we have chosen to accept the gift that we have been presented with, we will enjoy the fullness of that gift for eternity, but if we don’t take that gift, we will not only be without that gift for eternity, but what pleasures we did have when we were in this life, we will be without as well (Matthew 25:29, Luke 19:26).

So here is what we are left with: We are presented with a gift, a beautiful and gracious gift; we can either choose to ignore that gift and play with the things that are immediately before us, or we can deny ourselves some of the momentary pleasures that the store, our life in this world, has to offer in order to choose to possess this gift, which is God himself. God is offering us a relationship with himself. All we have to do is take it, to leave our short-sighted pleasure seeking and take the time to make this gift our own to enjoy forevermore. I ask you, I implore you, I beg you, take the gift. Take what has been promised you. Stop playing with the stuff in the store and let your Father give you something that will last beyond the store. Let God give you himself, the only thing that you can take with you when you leave.