We talked a little last week about the Lord’s Storehouse, the Lord Jesus Christ “in whom all fulness dwells.” He is the one that “giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” Not only does He give us all things, but He is the One from whom all things came forth, as King David said: “All things come of Thee.” He is the Fountain of life, and everything that gives us life flows from this wondrous Fountain, and it is His own life that it carries to us.

If we keep this always in our minds, His gifts will be much more precious to us, and the life that He gives us will have its right value in our eyes as a sacred thing, the life of God Himself, which comes to us in these different ways.

Think also of the words of the Good Shepherd, of whom we lately talked together: “I am come that they might have life.” If Jesus had not been willing to give Himself for our sins, to give up His own life to save us from the cures of death, we should never have had life at all, for the human family would have perished just as soon as they sinned.

The earth which was cursed also through man’s sin, and became :subject to vanity” (emptiness), would have vanished and become as nothing, as though it had not been. No beautiful spring seasons would have wakened it from its wintry sleep, nor summer suns filled it with the goodness of the Lord, to be gathered in the autumn harvests, to give food to all His creatures. All would have been lost for ever, and we should not have had life at all, for we should never have been born.

But Jesus, the Creator of all things, gave His own life, took upon Himself the curse of death which sin had brought, and swallowed it up by the power of His endless life. And so, in all His works, wherever there is life, we can see His power over death, the power of His works, through which He has destroyed “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil,” and delivered His whole creation from vanishing away and becoming as though it had not been. “I am come that they might have life,” and everything that gives us life comes to us because of His sacrifice, the giving of His own life for us.

So everything upon the earth, in which there is life, has stamped upon it the message of God’s love, and of the way in which He has shown it by giving His own life for us. All things bear the marks of the cross of Christ. Every little seed which has the germ of life within it to make the earth still bring forth after its kind, and to ensure future harvests to sustain the world’s life; brings to us this message of love: “I am come that they might have life.”

If we always hear this message, what a difference it will make to the way in which we receive and enjoy the gifts of our Heavenly Father! Do you not think that Adam and Eve enjoyed the sweet air, the glorious sunshine, the pure water from the river of life, and the fruits of Paradise? Do you not think that each gift of God’s love called forth thanksgiving and praise from their glad hearts? Each blessing that they received from His hands came to them as a fresh assurance of His love.

And yet the gifts of God which gave them life could not mean to them all that they do to us: for no curse of sin had stained the fair creation of God, and so the wondrous Story of the Cross of Christ was yet unwritten upon it.

Ah, how much fuller and sweeter a message of God’s love each fruit and flower, each breath of air, and ray of light, brings to us from our Heavenly Father! It tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” that we should not perish, but have everlasting life. It tells of Him who has poured out His own life-blood that we may live.

Surely this should bring to our hearts even more grateful praise and love than moved the hearts of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and should fill us with a deeper gladness.

Will you not, dear children, as you think of these things “praise God from whom all blessings flow,” and give thanks to Him

“Whose bounty shines in Autumn unconfined,
And spreads a common feast for all that lives.”

“O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.”

“The world is so full of such beautiful things,
Don’t you think little folks should be happy as kings?”

The Present Truth – October 18, 1900
E. J. Waggoner

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