John 12:9 “The large crowd of the Jews then learned that He was there; and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might also see Lazarus, whom He raised from the dead.”

Don’t you just love this verse? The crowd came not just to see Jesus but to look at Lazarus. I mean, after all, most of them had never seen a dead man living. Right? And Lazarus hadn’t just been dead. He had been dead for four days. He was, according to his sister, already stinking! He was real dead. So the crowd comes not so much to see Jesus but to see the miracle He had performed.

Aren’t we just like that? We want to see a sign. We want to stare at something miraculous. Jesus is right there all the time, but we had rather look for the new amazing thing.

It’s kind of like when we buy our children that very special thing they have been asking for. We shop and shop. We look online. We finally track it down, wrap it special and give it to them. They are overjoyed – until the new runs out. Then they are looking for the next best thing. They simply forgot all about the great gift you have given them. But not only that, they have totally forgotten about the motivation behind the gift.

We need to teach our children the importance of the Giver, not the gifts. We need to point them towards the reason behind the blessings He bestows on us. It is all about love. He loves us with a never ending love. He loves us despite our short memories of His blessings. He loves us even though we look past Him to the thing given.

The next time you buy your child a gift (and there is nothing wrong with that) watch for that first sign of disinterest in the gift. Take that moment to teach this lesson. It is not about guilting your child to appreciate anything. It’s about teaching them about recognizing the motivation behind the gift giving, whether that be from us or our Savior.