For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. - John 3:16

Ted Turner, successful broadcasting entrepreneur, asked a provocative question of his good friend Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation: "You're a big fund-raiser. What's the largest gift ever?" Gregorian told him that it was the $500 million donation Walter Annenberg had made to education. Turner replied: "How about a billion? I'm going to give a billion tonight." And he did, promising $100 million annually to fund United Nations programs for the next 10 years.

Turner's impressive philanthropy received worldwide attention and applause. After all, it was the largest gift on record globally. Or was it? What about the Bible's record of God's gift to the world of His "only begotten Son"? (John 3:16).

A billion dollars is an unusually large gift-difficult for most of us to imagine. But it shrivels to zero when we think of Bethlehem's manger and Calvary's cross. The value of God's gift to man is inestimable. In utter amazement, Paul thanked God for "His indescribable gift" (2 Corinthians 9:15).

What is the most valuable gift ever? It is God's gift of His one and only Son to a sinful world. Through faith in Him we can have complete forgiveness of sins and life that never ends (v.16). Have you received God's gift?

-VCG

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

-Watts

Christ is the greatest gift known to man.