It's mid-January and I'm still hearing people talk about Christmas gifts. Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive and as usual, he couldn't have been more right. As Christians, we get to do both.

Even though we're wired with some selfish tendencies, we're also wired (created in the image of God) with an impulse to give and find deep satisfaction in doing so.

And we also get to receive. God is an amazing gift giver.

What are some of God's best gifts as we enter into 2008? The best one, in my opinion, is abstract and intangible until and unless we receive it by faith and begin experiencing it: reconciliation with God through Jesus.

We who were "far off" have now been drawn near.

By God's mysterious and miraculous power, we get to be in restored relationship with our creator if we respond to God's initiatives. It's a relationship that's confined in one sense by the limits of our humanity, but it's also infinite in its possibility.

One of the best presents FROM God is the presence OF God in our world and our lives. It almost never appears the way we expect. Sometimes it's a quiet voice, not a big demonstration. Sometimes God takes a position of vulnerability rather than power.

There's not the absence of evil and suffering that we might expect with God present. This requires faith on our part, when the circumstantial evidence is less empirical than we 21st century scientists might prefer.

There is always surprise in the presence of God.

The presence of God comes to us in many forms, and one form is through other individuals and groups. Families, neighbors, friends, classmates, colleagues, and even larger communities like cities and nations, all can have a part in conveying God's presence to others. Some do this intentionally, trying to be obedient servants as they strive to follow and imitate Jesus. Some others do this instinctively out of impulses to share and give and sacrifice for others, impulses that they may not recognize or attribute as coming from the very God who created them.

Is God glorified and pleased when any human being (a follower of Jesus or not) does what we were designed for? I think so.

The presence and evidence of God in our world in 2008 -- in the Holy Spirit, in God's written and incarnated and living Word become flesh, in the amazing created world around us, in our spiritual living selves, in the lives of many others around us -- in all of this, the presence of God is ideally the lens with which we should view the things taking place in our days.

It can be easy to forget or wonder about God's presence when we experience pain and loss; when something angers us; when the day's bad news from Kenya or Palestine or Pakistan or Indonesia comes across our screen; when families and churches struggle or even split apart; when ethnic groups slaughter their neighbors, or even live quietly for years with the inner turmoil that would somehow enable them to do such violent things one day.

These experiences confound us. They don't look like Immanuel, "God with us," as we just commemorated Jesus' birth.

But these experiences can also be reminders to us of God's presence -- not as we always expect it and want it, but in a persistent, patient, purposeful carrying out of a long range plan God has in mind, which not only requires some suspension of our disbelief, but also invites our participation and response.

It's partly in the human participation and response to human need that we see the presence and evidence of the God who created us with inherited qualities. In part, it's in the churches and individuals who demonstrate extreme love and sacrifice that we can see a hint of the one who is reconciling all things back to their original intent and design.

It's also partly in the miraculous transformation that can take place with God's help in a person here and a community there, taking off the old self like soiled clothing, and daily putting on the new self that God gives as a gift - this becomes one of the most powerful ways that we see God's presents and presence among us.

May the best God has to offer be recognized and received by you throughout this new year, and may you find much joy in the collaboration.