Every good gift

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. – James 1.16-17

Once again God has graced us with another new year of life. I am not old yet, but with this being my 60th year of life I am started to see each new year as a gift. I am getting close to my ‘three score and ten’ so am starting to learn to treasure each year as a gift. 

The passage reminds us that every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from heaven above. We don’t often enough see the good that God does for us. Man finds it easy to blame God, but not as easy to give Him credit. Good is from God – evil is from man. The God who said ‘let there be light’ is the source of all light. He is the origin of all that is good. He is the only source of goodness so all goodness is His. All the good of 2014 and all the good to come in 2015 is from Him and Him alone. 

That is good enough – but what follows is even better. There is no variation with God. There isn’t even a hint of turning with Him. He is all good. He does all good. 

James uses an interesting illustration here. He uses the phrase ‘the Father is lights’ to describe God. Of course, God is the One who said ‘let there be light’ and because of that He is the source of al light. He set the sun and moon and stars in place to light our way. 

But in all of those things there is variation. Every month we see the moon in its phases. Nothing is more consistent than the sun. It rises every morning and sets every evening. But there is even variation there. At this time of year it is dark until about 8.30 and dark again a little after 4.00. The light of the sun varies as the year goes by. In the summer shadows are very short, but this time of year even at noon our shadows are long. 

But God never changes. He is the same day after day after day. He is just as faithful in the dark days of winter as He is in the bright days of summer. The shadow that God casts never varies. 

God is the giver of all good, and that doesn’t change. Of all the places to put our trust in the year to come should we not put it in the unchanging giver of good?