Romans 12:6 — Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

I’ve been wrapping Christmas presents today. I guess that’s what has put me in mind of this natural gift-related devotion.
Even those that love me best would admit that I DO NOT have the spiritual gift of “wrapping”. It takes me a long time, and the results are often not pretty! The one good thing you can say, I suppose is that it’s often hard to guess the contents from the wrapping. (Actually, those that REALLY know me know that I only ever got sent out of class twice … Once when we were cutting stars in elementary school, and once from a woodwork class.)
It seems to me that people are much the same. Not all “pretty” on the outside. In fact some of us are just about brown paper parcels wrapped with the roughest of twine. Of course others are beautifully done up in the nicest of glittery paper with elegant bows and finely written labels.
The thing is — we’ve been “wrapped”by the Master’s hand. Every one of us, whether we (or anyone else) knows it, is perfectly wrapped. Not like my parcels at all!
One thing that my gifts and the Master’s “parcels” do have in common is that you can’t always guess what’s inside, or what it’s worth, from what the appearance might suggest.
Each of us, when we accept the invitation to join God’s families are blessed with “spiritual” gifts. These are gifts, specially selected, given by God (more particularly, by the Holy Spirit) by grace — yet another blessing that we do nothing to earn, but that we receive because it pleases God to give it.
Just like any other gift, a spiritual gift needs to be received and unwrapped! Sometimes that will need the help of others to recognize gifts. It will always need practice! A neglected or unused gift has no value to the recipient and is, let’s be honest, a slap in the face to the giver!
There are some things that are very different about God’s gifts and mine, however. For one thing, you can’t regift the Father’s gifts. You can’t pass them on to anyone else. It’s no good wishing for somebody else’s gifts, either. They’re uniquely selected for the recipient, perfectly shaped, sized and fitted! That’s not to say you can’t request gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:31 says “But covet earnestly the best gifts” — but they can’t come on demand, they can’t be earned, they can’t be bought.
I hope you’ll get some wonderful gifts this Christmas … But whether you do or you don’t, spend some time thinking about spiritual gifts. A new one would be worth more than you could ever find under the tree!