My mom always speaks about my dad as one of the best gifts God has given her.

My best friends, as they get married one by one, tell me that a husband and marriage are great gifts from God.

My sisters have both married men who are incredible gifts to them.

My “adopted” grandpa says that a good marriage is as close to heaven as you can get on earth, and he dotes on his wife of several decades, looking at her as though he can’t believe the gift that God has given him.

Somewhere along the timeline of my young life, I began to believe that a husband was the best gift God could ever possibly give me. I believed that while singleness is certainly a gift, it was not as good as marriage would be. I easily fell into the trap-lie that said “God is not giving me the best gift, so He has to work extra hard to make up for that with Jesus.”

I don’t think I ever consciously put that thought into words. I started a blog about the truths of the Gospel and how they defeat the lies of singleness. I wrote things like “Jesus is not a consolation prize.” But underneath it all was the subtle, dormant lie that God has been withholding the best gift He could give me.

At the bridal shower for my roommate this weekend, my pastor’s wife Abbey shared a truth that completely…just…aaaarrrrrgh. It dug up the subtle lie, stared it in the face, and then blew it up. Just, BAM.

Abbey said to my roommate, “Your fiancé is a good gift – a GREAT gift – from God. But if you treat him as though he’s the best gift God could ever give you, you’ll be missing out on God’s truly greatest gift.” (She took more words to say it, but that was the idea.)

That truth shattered my world.

Yes, a husband is a good gift. A good husband is a GREAT gift. But a husband is not the greatEST gift God could give me.

A gift, by its very nature, is unearned. God requires perfection (sinlessness) for people who are in His presence. I am a sinner, separated from God by nature and choice, separated from Him because of my sin. God knew that I would never be able to earn salvation on my own, so He sent Jesus to earn it. He sent His only Son to come down to earth and be the required perfection in my place. It wasn’t easy; at the end of His perfect life, Jesus had to die and rise from the dead. But God (and by extension Jesus) gave me the gift of salvation (life forever with God) anyway – simply because I couldn’t earn it on my own.

A gift is lavished by a giver with no expectation of reciprocation. God knew I’d never be able to repay Him for sending Jesus, so He demands nothing in return. Even the good works that I do out of thankfulness to God for His gift are because He enables the desire in me to do good things. God gave me the gift of freedom from sin – simply because He wanted to.

A gift is a reflection of the giver; it’s also a signal of what the giver thinks about the receiver. By looking at Jesus’ death and resurrection, I can tell that God loves me deeply, intensely, securely, eternally. God gave me the gift of Jesus – simply because He loves me.

If JESUS is how God shows His love to me…man, I got no words for that.

I can’t help the tears, even though they get in the way of typing. I have Jesus. A husband would be a great gift, but I have the BEST gift God could give me. The BEST. I have the best. I’m not even married, and I have the best gift God could ever give!

No matter how I phrase it, it blows me away every time. Singleness isn’t a lesser gift than a husband – everything on this earth is a lesser gift than Jesus. How have I MISSED that?! The good gifts of this world (including a life-changing devotional at a roommate’s bridal shower) serve only to point me to Him.

Over a year of blogging about Gospel-centered singleness, and this basic truth brings me to my knees.

Let me say it again, because I don’t know what else to say.

A husband is a good gift from God, but I – a single woman – already have the Greatest Gift that God could give me.

Not only that, but the Gift Himself allows me direct access to the Giver, the One Who loves me infinity-times more than a human ever will.

I already have the greatest gift God could give.

I already have the greatest gift God could give.

The greatest gift God could give. I have it. I have Jesus.

…

[mic drop]

…

…

Peace out, yo.