Did you wake up, take a deep breath and thank God for the air you breathed in? Have you ever thanked God for giving you air? Believe me, if there were a way to manufacture and monopolize things like air, we humans would do it. God has definitely outsmarted us when it comes to giving us air to breathe. We cannot own it, yet we need it to even stay alive one more minute. God is the one Who gives us air to breathe.

I always praise God when He gives me something like a bonus check, a book contract, or an unexpected gift. I know that all good things come from Him. But God is so much more generous than those things. I have reason to thank Him and be grateful for Him every day that I live. There’s the sunrise each morning. Now that is more amazing than any Master ever painted. It is ever-changing and only offered to those who rise and sit still long enough to witness the glory. At the end of the day (for those who don’t get up before light), He gives a second chance to ponder His artistry as the sun sets. But that’s not all. Once darkness quiets the earth, His glorious light comes into view. Like sunrise and sunset, it is never the same. The ever-changing canvas filled with stars and moon is displayed to reveal His glory and His generous thoughtfulness to reveal His mighty power to His creation. One pastor said that God overdid creation. He not only made light, but He made LIGHT extraordinaire!

James 1:17 puts it this way, Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. Do you grasp this thought? Do you understand the generosity of God? Do you realize what this means?

I realize that I can never fathom the utter generosity of God. But I can take in what I am able to take in. Even the idea of the Father of Lights is further examined by our modern exploration of space. The further we are able to penetrate the depths of space the more evidence we discover that the Father of Lights is more awesome than one can observe with the naked eye. Still there are so many who breathe in God’s air and stare at God’s lights and never consider that He gave them and will one day take them away. Let’s not be among them. Let’s celebrate God’s generosity to us every day of our lives.

God’s greatest gift of generosity is the salvation He has bestowed through the life, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. The air will evaporate, the earth and the heavens will be destroyed, but His salvation will last for eternity. Now that is a generous God!