Open the Gift You Are

You are God’s gift to yourself. That may sound strange, but it is nonetheless the truth. As I wrote to myself back in my twenties, shortly after my first encounter with the Holy Spirit, “God gave me, me, long before I asked.” By that I meant there was more to me than I had imagined; that my true self is the one God made me to be from my very beginning, and silently sees me as being. And only I can be me, as only you can be you. Though I still remain a mystery to myself, I have been assured that whoever I am, I am God’s.

Built on that realization, my calling from God, in addition to loving the God who loves me, and my neighbor as myself, is to love myself. And to do so for God’s sake even above my own. To love yourself as God’s creation includes opening your gifts and talents, and believing in and developing the gift you are to God, to others, and to yourself.

As rabbi Hillel, an older contemporary of Jesus, famously said, “If I am not for me, who is? And if not now, when? But if I am only for myself, what am I?”

And so I say, “Open the gift you are!” Here is a mediation with that title:

“Open the gift you are, to yourself and others, the gift from God, given long before you could ask.
You already are who you long to be, in ways which only you can discern, potential, actual, becoming, being, all of the above, all at once.
In the seed is already the tree waiting to unfold and expand its giftedness to itself and the yielding forests of distinguished otherness.

“Untie the bow of being, open the box of divine surprises, be fully, joyously the one who pops up and out.
Seek not to repress, suppress or depress the one you cannot help but be.
Seek not yourself from others; you have already received you from the only one who truly matters.

“You are the gift God intended you to be.
You just need to unfurl your inner being with the gentle fingers of faith, hope and love, for there can be no other you but you, which you must choose to be in the quieting conviction that God has already blessed you with you as a sheer gift of grace, welcoming you to life.”

As you meditate on being God’s gift to yourself, let self-acceptance arise and strengthen in you. The truth is, if you do not accept yourself, both known and yet unknown, you are in effect saying “no” to God’s birthing gift of you. Yet God will patiently await your self-discovery, leading to self-recovering.