For my birthday, my best friend gave me two gifts: a toolbox and a pair of earrings. 

When I opened the gifts, I laughed at how incongruous they were and how they were so perfect for me.

Only someone who knew me well would think to give me these two presents, someone who knew that I often reached for a table knife as a substitute for a screwdriver or used my rolling pin as a hammer. 

She would understand, too, how much I love wearing earrings. They were perfect gifts.

Ephesians 2:8 mentions a more perfect gift: the gift of salvation. It is a free, no-strings-attached gift. A gift from God must be perfect because God is perfect.

My friend knows me and knows my needs and desires. 

God knows us even better than a close friend does, better, in fact, than we know ourselves. God knows us so well that, as Jesus told us, ‘even the very hairs of your head are all numbered’ (Matthew 10:30). 

God knows we need a saviour; we cannot save ourselves. He not only knows us but loves us as well. Because of love, God offers us a gift that is exactly what we need. 

Jesus is the perfect gift.

Prayer: Thank you, God, for sending Jesus to be the Saviour of the world. Amen