Maybe it is a no brainer, but as I was watching "The Ultimate Gift" yesterday with my kids, it struck me that it is far more than teaching us how to appreciate and live a better life. To me, it seems like this is like the relationship between our Heavenly Father and us.
He has a series of lessons for us, challenging and perspective changing, which requires us to take action. At one point, the grandfather says that the first gifts the grandson learned were pretty straightforward but that the last ones required a little more on the grandson's part to make them meaningful and effective.
I feel like that is like us and captures the beautiful relationship between grace and works. God has greatness and glory for us: we need to do things that either open our eyes or show our trust in Him in order to prepare for them...or even receive them! This spoiled young man was unable to get the gift of personal family happiness until he put himself in the awkward position of trying to be grateful when it was hard...trying to sacrifice for others which ran counter to all he was raised to believe and live.
But when he acted, he learned and gained these precious gifts. However, in the end, it was the greatness and glory and grace of his grandfather that gave him what the world would term "the ultimate gift" of the 2 billion dollar inheritance. It was the grace that saw a truly humbled if imperfect heart totally turned over to doing the work his grandfather had been doing in his life. "It is by grace ye are saved after all ye can do."
I contest that the ultimate gift was not the money but in a heart reborn and completely dedicated to his grandfather's work: the money was merely the means with which to carry out those noble desires to bless others.
Can you see the amazing parallels?! Our Father has a series of tests and experiences for us to change our hearts, to receive these gifts he has for us.
"Every blessing we receive is predicated upon obedience to some law..."
After we go through these tests (however imperfectly) it is the changed heart that we will have when we stand before our God, our God that we have shut out sometimes as the young man shut out his grandfather...our God who loves us and has so much faith in us.
In the end, the grandfather says something about how if the young man got to that point, then he would have exceeded all the grandfather's expectations and hopes.
The cool thing is that if we get to that point, we will just be reaching that potential that God saw within us all along. :)
Maybe the movie makers intended the symbolism, but somehow I wonder if God worked his miracles once again and made something like Les Miserables with multiple depths. All I know is I love what it has done for me!
Don't miss out on your Ultimate Gift: a changed, a God-like heart.
(available on Vidangel for $1 or Amazon for about $3, I understand)
I feel like that is like us and captures the beautiful relationship between grace and works. God has greatness and glory for us: we need to do things that either open our eyes or show our trust in Him in order to prepare for them...or even receive them! This spoiled young man was unable to get the gift of personal family happiness until he put himself in the awkward position of trying to be grateful when it was hard...trying to sacrifice for others which ran counter to all he was raised to believe and live.
But when he acted, he learned and gained these precious gifts. However, in the end, it was the greatness and glory and grace of his grandfather that gave him what the world would term "the ultimate gift" of the 2 billion dollar inheritance. It was the grace that saw a truly humbled if imperfect heart totally turned over to doing the work his grandfather had been doing in his life. "It is by grace ye are saved after all ye can do."
I contest that the ultimate gift was not the money but in a heart reborn and completely dedicated to his grandfather's work: the money was merely the means with which to carry out those noble desires to bless others.
Can you see the amazing parallels?! Our Father has a series of tests and experiences for us to change our hearts, to receive these gifts he has for us.
"Every blessing we receive is predicated upon obedience to some law..."
After we go through these tests (however imperfectly) it is the changed heart that we will have when we stand before our God, our God that we have shut out sometimes as the young man shut out his grandfather...our God who loves us and has so much faith in us.
In the end, the grandfather says something about how if the young man got to that point, then he would have exceeded all the grandfather's expectations and hopes.
The cool thing is that if we get to that point, we will just be reaching that potential that God saw within us all along. :)
Maybe the movie makers intended the symbolism, but somehow I wonder if God worked his miracles once again and made something like Les Miserables with multiple depths. All I know is I love what it has done for me!
Don't miss out on your Ultimate Gift: a changed, a God-like heart.
Love your thoughts and the movie.
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