First Dates, Fake Chocolates, and the Father’s Perfect Gift

Have you ever unwrapped a gift expecting one thing, only to discover something completely different inside? I have - and it happened on a first date. But it also got me thinking about how God the Father gave His Son a gift too - not a mistake or a mismatch, but the most perfect, purposeful gift in all eternity.

First dates…blind dates…sometimes it's hard to tell the difference, whether you've had a chance meeting previously or not, the first date is always a bit of a blind leap - into either romance or the longest hour of your life. I once went on a first date with a man who shall remain nameless - not because I'm protecting his identity, but because I've genuinely forgotten it.

What I haven't forgotten is the gift he brought with him.

It was a promising start. A lovely country pub just outside Glossop, a table by the fire, and a box, promisingly labelled "Terry's Neapolitans" - my absolute favourite. I was touched. "How thoughtful!" I said and meant it. We hadn't even ordered drinks before I eagerly opened the box, expecting an assortment of flavoured velvety chocolate delights….my absolute favourite being the 'café-au-lait'.

But instead… I was hit by a smell so sharp, so synthetic, it made my eyes water. Inside the chocolate box was a bottle of perfume - nasty, chemical, and….a worrying shade of greenish yellow, definitely not chocolate-scented.

My date grinned. "I thought I'd be creative."

I blinked. "You hid perfume in a chocolate box?"

"Yeah. Clever, right?"

Ladies, it was not, and for someone who, at that time of life, was sustained by chocolate, it never would be. But I smiled politely. That's what you do. You smile. You say thank you. And you try to breathe through your mouth for the rest of the evening……

It's a funny thing, receiving a wildly inappropriate gift. It makes you squirm a little. Like being given diet books for Christmas, or hair products when you're bald, or – well - nasty perfume when you were hoping for café-au-lait chocolate.

Finding a gift for someone with unlimited access to Amazon is challenging. But what do you give someone who literally owns everything?

That's the question I found myself asking earlier last week while reading John 17. Because in that passage, Jesus is in Gethsemane praying to His Father just before His arrest, and He keeps repeating a phrase:"those you have given me."

Why, because God the Father did give a gift to Jesus. The most perfect, appropriate, deeply satisfying gift imaginable.

Not a mansion - Jesus owns them all - and is renovating one for me, as we speak (John 14:2). Not a galaxy - He made those too. Not a planet, or a throne, or a flashy angelic choir in matching robes….. Jesus already had glory from eternity past.

But what do you give the eternal Son of God - the Creator of the galaxies, the King of heaven?

God gave Him us….you and me. God entered into an agreement, a covenant with Jesus; God would give to Jesus a company of men and women, for whom he was specifically to die in order to secure their salvation.

As odd as it sounds, the Father's perfect gift to the Son was a people. People like you and me. People created in the image of God but who had fallen as far away from God as you can imagine, a people who were spiritually allergic to righteousness, and yet - through Jesus' own suffering and resurrection - would be made new, conformed to His image, and called His brothers and sisters forever. The redeemed. The church. A people called back to life through the cross - that was the gift.

At first glance, it might seem almost as odd as my surprise perfume. Why us? Why me? I can think of a thousand better presents for Jesus than… well, someone who can barely remember to pray before lunch. But that's exactly what Scripture tells us.

Isaiah 53:11 says that after the suffering of His soul, He will see the result and be satisfied. He wasn't disappointed. He didn't unwrap us and recoil. He rejoiced, he rejoiced because this was the plan all along: that through His suffering, He would redeem a people for Himself.

And just in case you think this is only an Old Testament idea, here in Hebrews 12:2 we find the same theme, we are told to look to the example of Jesus Christ, who is the "the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame." Here again we see in what Christ's joy was to be found…..it was found in the knowledge that by his death he would secure the salvation of all whom God had given him.

And more than that, it comforted Him.

Sometimes, when people face a scary thing, such as an operation, they calm themselves by saying things like, "It'll be over soon" or "Everything will turn out okay." Have you ever watched sportsmen just before a major race or game, how they talk to themselves? They steady themselves before the event, we often say they steel themselves. They find strength in the future outcome, whether it is the successful result of the operation or the gold medal they may soon hold.

On the brink of the crucifixion, Jesus found strength in the promise of the gift: "those you have given me." He repeats it seven times in John 17. Over and over. As if reminding himself, "This is why I'm going through with this. This is worth it." This was no ordinary operation or sporting event, though; this was hard, extraordinarily hard, for it involved the Son of God, made sin for us, and this entailed a real, though temporary, separation from the Father. In the Garden, on this same evening, he even prayed in agony that this cup be removed from him, if such could be the Father's will.

There is no greater gift, no more appropriate gift, no more satisfying gift for Jesus than this, the gift of the church to the One who would die for it. If you have believed on Christ as your Saviour, if you have put your faith and trust for your salvation in who Christ is, in His life, death and resurrection, you should know that you are one who was given to Jesus before the foundation of the world and the joy that Jesus looked towards was the joy of your salvation. You are the wandering lamb that He carried home; the lost coin found in the darkness of a dusty room, the prodigal son coming home to be hugged by his father.

What the Father gave the Son wasn't an impulsive, ill-suited surprise. It wasn't hidden in the wrong packaging. It wasn't a gift that would end up forgotten under the bathroom sink. It was deliberate. Eternal. Satisfying.

And with the gift came something else: authority.                      John 17:2 says that Jesus was given authority over all flesh so that He might give eternal life to those the Father had given Him. That authority isn't vague. It's not just a spiritual, symbolic or potential rule. It is an actual rule. A total rule. He rules over every life, every heart, every resistant corner of human will. No one is exempt from the scope of this universal authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, he may do with them as he wishes. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He even has authority over the most stubborn thing in the universe: the human flesh - not just our bodies, but our entire self-centred, rebellious nature. God the Father knows His sheep; they are His, and he has given them to the Son, and He has given life-giving authority to His Son…and thus the Son gives life to all that the Father has given.

Without that life-giving authority, I'd still be walking away from Him, still choosing my own way. Still blind, deaf, and uninterested. But because of His power, I was called. Changed. Drawn. Given life.

So, here's the marvel: Christ has universal authority, but exercises it especially to give eternal life to those whom the Father has given Him, to those who,1 Timothy 4:10 says, believe.

And if today you feel the pull of His Spirit - if you find yourself drawn to Jesus, and believe what the Bible says about Him is true, and that He is worthy of your allegiance, then you can be certain of this: you are part of God’s gift to His Son. You are not an afterthought.

Not a consolation prize. Not a disappointment.

You were the gift the Father gave the Son - and Jesus gladly received it.

And that is the best news I've ever received. Even better than Terry's Neapolitans.