(Pastor James Scarborough, Donalsonville Assembly of God)

I read the story of a man and his wife who were anticipating a very special occasion. As the time of that event drew nearer, the wife had a dream in which her husband gave her a gold necklace. She awakened the next morning all excited, but also inquisitive. She told her husband about the dream and wanted him to explain to her the meaning of the dream. He responded by telling her to just hold on a few more days and she would understand the dream.

As the time drew closer for the day of celebration, she had the dream again, except this time her husband gave her a pearl necklace. Like before, her excitement was genuine, but her questions were also many. And again, her husband told her that she would soon understand the dream.

On the eve of the anticipated occasion, she dreamed that her husband gave her a necklace--one consisting of many large diamonds. When she told this to her husband, he told her to wait until they shared the evening meal together, and then she would understand all her dreams.

So as they shared supper together, he came out with a nicely and beautifully wrapped box. “Now” he told her, “open this, and you will know the meaning of all those dreams.” She ripped away the wrappings to expose the precious gift inside (after all, what could possibly be greater than a gold, pearl or diamond necklace?)

Inside she found a book entitled Understanding Your Dreams.

I expect the phrase “In the dog house” took on a very personal meaning to that gentleman!

I suppose we men are guilty of being a bit too practical with the gifts that we select for our wives. Gale and I will celebrate our 32nd anniversary next month, so I will try to do gift selecting from a sensitive rather than a strictly practical perspective.

While we fail at times in discerning what is needed and appropriate for those that we wish to express our love to, we can be certain that God knows exactly what the needs of humankind are. Our greatest need as human beings--all of whom have been afflicted by sin--is an avenue of forgiveness. We do not have the ability to provide our own means of righteousness in the sight of God, yet we can rejoice that such right standing with God has been provided for us through God’s perfect gift of eternal life that is made possible through believing upon Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection as payment for our sins.

In these early days of the season of Lent, I challenge us all to remember our great spiritual need and the tremendous price that Jesus Christ gave to meet our need. Let us remember His victory over the temptations that Satan flung at Him, His commitment to His mission of going to the cross for sinful humankind and His suffering that He endured because of His great love for us.

With sincere hearts of gratitude for His gift provided for us, may we all live our lives devoted to Christ with these words from Titus 2:14 in mind: “Who [Christ] gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good” (NIV).