Faith in the Present Giver

What is all the excitement in receiving a present on Christmas?

Is part of the excitement not in the surprise of not knowing what the present is?

The excitement of having to unwrap the unknown? The excitement in the feeling of having received a gift after the unknown present has been unwrapped and come to be known.

The question is: why is there no fear or anxiety during this period of the unknown?

Could it be that there is something deeper within fear and anxiety that goes beyond the unknown itself?

If the unknown can produce fear and anxiety in one aspect of life but not in another, then the unknown cannot be credited as the sole producer of a person’s fears and anxieties.

What factors beyond the unknown determine whether it will be experienced as fearful and anxiety-provoking or not?

When dissecting the unknown of a Christmas present, what is beyond this unknown that does not allow fear and anxiety to arise?

What is it that prevents one from being afraid of the unwrapping?

Could fear and anxiety of the unknown be dependent upon the person giving the present?

The same present, wrapped and given by one’s mother, would produce a different sense of anticipation than if given by a stranger, which changes the experience of receiving the present.

Yet merely knowing the giver does not remedy fear.

What is it within that knowledge that dissolves anxiety?

When one is given a present by their mother, it is not simply knowledge of the mother that calms fear, but faith that the child has in the mother’s love for it.

Faith in that love becomes the remedy.

Through faith in the giver’s love, fear of the receiver’s unknowingness diminishes.

Without faith, the unknown produces anxiety; with faith, that same unknown produces anticipation.

One is not dreading the surprise but eagerly awaiting the gift that love will present.

It is by faith that one is not frightened by the unknown awaiting to be unwrapped.

Even though the gift itself is unknown, the love of the giver is known.

Because of this, the unknown becomes a space of positivity rather than negativity.

In the same way that fears and anxieties about the unknown are extinguished by faith in a mother’s love, faith in Father God does the same.

But where a mother’s present to the child is a physical gift, God’s present to the child is the moment—and that moment is the gift.

Therefore, through faith in God and in God’s love, one need not be consumed by fear and anxiety about the present moment or the future that will unfold into a present.

The gift that is now and that will be is given with love, by love, from love, and for love.

The present moment is the gift—unknown and awaiting to be unwrapped.

The future is the revelation of what the present gift truly is.

The now, which feels uncertain, is the present gifted by God’s love, just as a child’s present is given by a mother’s love.

A present remains a present until it is unwrapped.

In the unwrapping, it becomes a gift revealed.

So if one is paralyzed by fear and anxiety while unwrapping the present of now, what does it reveal about one’s perception of the giver?

Does this not raise a question about one’s faith in the giver?

For if the receiver of the present had faith and trust in the gift-giver, then within that faith one would possess the preventative tools to forgo the paralysis of anxiety when unwrapping the unknown.

If one is overtaken by paralyzing fear of the present or the future, one must ask: is there a lack of faith within oneself toward the giver?

Or perhaps the anxiety reflects a belief that there is no giver at all—that what comes is governed by chance.

Receiving something by chance feels fundamentally different from receiving something with faith.

Chance leaves one vulnerable to randomness; faith suggests intention.

The former can provoke uncertainty; the latter can produce trust.

With that being said, normal levels of fear and anxiety are necessary.

They help with growth and development.

This is not the paralyzing fear discussed above.

There is a distinction between fear that motivates and fear that suffocates.

Paralyzing fear dominates and overtakes the being.

It paralyzes.

Yet even this form of fear can become transformative if one draws upon God’s Will and becomes willing to allow it to shape and refine them.

Fear that once paralyzed due to a lack of faith becomes detrimental only if it remains stagnant, but through God’s Will even that fear is transformed into a catalyst that liberates by sparking self-discovery.

What appears negative in the present when unwrapped by the future may not ultimately be so.

Only the future fruition of the current state determines its true meaning.

What feels like suffocation now may, through faith and willingness, become part of one’s refinement.

The current fear of opening the present gift due to the absence of faith can itself be unwrapped and revealed as the gift of transcendence.

Through faith in the present giver of now, the unknown no longer causes fear and anxiety but rather becomes a gift eager to be unwrapped.