"Why God is Like a Gift"
by Caroline Page

Hi, my name is Caroline Page and I am here to talk to you about why God is like a gift. Because Christmas was so recent and presents are still on our minds, I am sure everyone can relate to this. We all received very special gifts that we wanted. They were all wrapped in colorful paper, sealed with a bow, and the anticipation to open them was too much to handle, at least that is how I felt. Some of the gifts were exactly what I wanted and a few were not quite top on my list, as I'm sure you all experienced, but they were all still gifts.

When we talk about God being a gift, it takes the word 'gift' to a whole new level. God is a gift that sometimes people take advantage of; I know I have. With material gifts, sometimes we want to use it and at first we love the gift because it is new, but when it kind of gets old, we get bored and put it away for awhile. Unfortunately, that is how a lot of us use God's gift. We take advantage of God's gift and use it when it is convenient or when times are hard.

Ephesians 2:8 reads, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." God is not wrapped up in a box and he probably does not wear a bow, but he is a gift, the greatest gift of all! Like a gift, you receive God and can either accept that gift or put it away and let it be ignored or throw it away entirely. When I opened all of my gifts this Christmas, they usually had a card or clothes, money, gift certificates, frames, jewelry, etc., and the gift of God is exactly like that except his gift consists of love, security, truth, eternal life, care, compassion, a friend, I could go on and on. You don't often hear of people asking Santa for the gift of God, but everyone should be asking for that awesome gift. I know I need to constantly be reminded to thank God and put him first.

Every Christmas morning, I know I will wake up to gifts that I will love. I know that will never fail, there will always be something exciting and new waiting for me. Just the same, we should know that the gift of grace that God gave us will never fail. He is not only a gift we can all love and share and look to for guidance, but He gave us an awesome gift. When He sent his son to be in the form of a human and to preach to everyone and then eventually die, He gave us the gift of eternal life and grace. Unlike all the material gifts we received this Christmas, God's gift is free of charge. We do not have to pay to receive his gift, and it was not bought for us. It is purely from the heart. We are all saved if we have faith. Like Ephesians read, we are not saved because of ourselves or what we have done in our lives, but because of the gift God gave us. The point of this analogy is to always remember the greatness of the gift God gave us, and remember what a gift it is that we are able to worship him and appreciate his gift.

 

"God is Like a Potter"
by Rachel Lee

As we grow up and mature it is important that God watches over us as a potter does his clay. The potter is careful not to let the clay become too dry or too wet or lopsided and crooked. Through our lives God has been watching over us and caring for us. God was not alone in forming us, though. God has chosen people to help him in creating his beautiful pottery. These people are your parents, brothers and sisters, friends, neighbors, teachers, and people at our church. No one person could mold you on their own and not even everybody in the world could mold you without the help of God.

If you are an adult, does that mean God's work is done? Some people say that an artist's work is never done. The potter may think the piece of pottery is complete, but there is always something else that can be done to improve it. I believe that God never stops molding us even we are adults. God is still influencing and creating the person he wants us to be. God has created millions of beautiful works of art. We don't all grow up to be doctors and lawyers, just like all pottery isn't bowls and vases, but can be masks and sculptures; things that are not just ordinary, but unusual. These things are not weird or obscene, but they are God's creation and God is proud of and loves each of these things equally. They are all just as beautiful as the next, but they are all very different and unique.

Isaiah 64:8 says, "Yet, O Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand." God is the potter. We are the clay.

 

"How God is Like a Rock"
by Sarah Harmon

Now, some of you may be wondering how in the world God can be compared to the little gray things we step on everyday without ever noticing. That is simple; God is solid, stable and unchanging in everything he does and says, just like the rocks we step upon each day. God is one thing we can always count on being there, just like we can count on the Himalayas to stand strong and outlast anything. So many people take advantage of God's stability and strength, no one truly knows how much God can outlast, all people know is he is solid as a rock.

Solid as a rock, now is that just a term for guys to use to try and show off their muscles, or is there a deeper meaning? Yes, there is a deeper meaning, sorry guys. Now, if God is a rock, strong and stable, shouldn't we want to be solid as the rock? With God's help we can work to be like him and be a rock standing strong and always able to be found.

I know God is my favorite rock to sit on. Each time I feel down or lonely, I always know where to find him, since like a rock he possesses an unchanging truth. The position of the biggest rock, God, can never change, especially if he is in your heart and working to make you rock solid. Aren't qualities you want to find in a best friend someone who is strong, stable and has an unchanging truth? You find these qualities in God and then you find these qualities to be in a rock as well, which means God is like a rock-a rock that each and everyday we should try to be more like.

In Psalms 61:2 we are told that as our hearts grow faint we are to let ourselves be led to the rock that is higher than us all. God is the rock that is higher than us all, and he is the rock that should not be ignored like the rocks we step upon every day. Be more cautious of those rocks and think about who or what you may really be affecting when stepped upon. Some of you may walk out of here today not once noticing the rocks beneath your feet, while others of you will be more observant. One thing I ask of you is to pay attention to the things around you and think about who made them and what they are. Each thing represents God and a love he has for us. God created the little gray rocks outside and they symbolize the solid, stable and unchanging love he has for us. May we each and every day grow to be more like God, may we have the desire to be solid as the rock and not let anything harm us or interfere with our lives.

 

"Why God is Like a Judge"
by Jeff McCarty

"And the heavens proclaim his righteousness for God himself is judge." (Psalms 50:6) He is the judge. God is always fair and always just. He always gives people what they deserve. Kind of like sentencing, except many times people are sentenced to good things, like when he sentences people to heaven. He judges everyone equally based on what they have been doing in accordance with his word. In other words, he doesn't have any favorites. If a person that never comes to church and a priest both commit the same sin, both will be punished equally based on that sin. God is not automatically going to forgive the priest, but at the same time God is not automatically going to condemn the person that never comes to church. They will both get the same chance to repent for their sin.

God is also like a judge in that God can always tell right from wrong, unlike us humans. When we try to make decisions based on what is right and wrong there are many times when we cloud the issue with our own agendas. We try to trick ourselves into thinking something is o.k. when we really know it is not o.k. Take white lies, for example. There have been many times in my life when I have tried to tell myself that it is right to lie because it would be worse for everyone involved if I told the truth. This may have been true a few times, but most of the time all the lie did was save me from getting in trouble because I did something wrong. You can always delude yourself into thinking something is right if you like the outcome, but if you go to God and ask him, he will always know and tell you what is truly right and wrong.

 

"God IS . . ."
by Hilary Gainer

What is God like to me? That is the question that I, like the rest of the youth, have been asking myself. Although at first this seems like a simple question, it truly isn't.

A few months ago my friend's older brother was involved in a car accident. The car rolled several times and came to rest in a ditch. My friend's brother was put in the hospital with a concussion, a broken arm, and several other minor injuries. After the accident the police said if my friend's brother had not been wearing his seat belt he would not have survived the accident. His seat belt saved his life. God is like that seat belt was in the wreck. The seat belt was my friend's brother's protection just like God is ours. And like the seat belt God must be "strapped on". Taking the initiative to put on a seat belt is just like a Christian taking the initiative to have God in their life. And like God, the seat belt is always there and it is up to the passenger to make the decision to put it on.

God IS like a gift. God IS like a potter. God IS like a rock. God IS like a judge. God IS like a seatbelt. God IS like big, bright eyes watching our every move. God IS like gigantic ears that listen to our every word. God IS like strong hands helping to lead the way. God IS our maker, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega.

There really isn't one true answer to this question. God IS everything we have ever wished we could be. God is not just LIKE all these things . . . He IS all these things and so much more!

Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, we thank you so very much for always being what we need you to be. God, we pray that you will go before us to guide us, behind us to guard us, beside us to befriend us, and above us to bless us. In your name we pray. Amen.