As we now enter into another decade and I am completing this three part series on "Gifts of the Heart," the first one was grace, the second gift was truth, and now we come to love, "That which God gives freely." The love we most long for.

    The week's perception at the beginning of 2010 invites us to return to the love we most long for in the story of a father and a son. In Leadership, pastor and author Stu Weber writes:

  "My youngest son is the third of three boys. The first two are high-powered; the third is not any less high-powered, but he’s the third out of three. By the time you’ve had a brother who’s all-conference this and another brother who’s all-conference that, there’s not much left for you to do.

    As a father, I worried about our caboose. He is the most sensitive of the three. To encourage him, I spent a lot of time with him in the outdoors - camping, hunting, fishing. Anybody who has spent time in the outdoors knows that a pocketknife is essential gear – the man with the best blade gets the job done. So, whenever you’re setting up camp, you’re always looking for the knife.

    My son, Ryan had a pocketknife that became his identity. His older brothers always had to ask him to use the knife as we were setting up camp. That became his status in the tribe. He was the man with the blade.

    My birthday came around one year, and my family was planning a party for me. Earlier in the afternoon my youngest walked into my office at home where I was studying. At first I didn’t hear him. I felt him - I could sense his presence - and I turned around. He had chosen this moment because he wanted to give me a birthday present, but not at the birthday party. He wanted it to be just me and him. He handed me a present, and I opened it. It was his knife.

    Remember, God chose the moment to reveal His constant to all if we open to receive it as the father in the story was open to receive from his son.”

    Portions taken from Stu Weber, “What It Takes to Reach Men,” Leadership (Fall 1994).