Gift = Sacrifice

Consider that a gift always requires some amount of sacrifice on the part of the giver--be it money, time, etc.

If the receiver never acknowledges the sacrifice they will never fully appreciate the gift.

In many situations I have given others of my time, skill, money, but in our independent self-reliant world we're afraid to acknowledge both that we need the help of others, and the help we receive is not owed us, but is a gift that required a sacrifice. Because of this attitude we are never truly grateful for what is received.

It's a humbling experience to acknowledge that we need someone else's help, and that the gift they have given us has cost them something. That it wasn't owed to us, nor given out of their excess, and that without their sacrifice we would be worse off.

Likewise, is God's gift to us. We don't want to dwell on the sacrifice the Triune God made for us. We don't want to consider how much it cost HIM. Or else we would have to face the truth that we owe him everything; our time, our attitude, our actions, and our heart. Without Him we would be lost, with Him we are saved, but that salvation came at a cost to HIM.