The world’s largest chocolate bar was made on this day in 2000.

It’s a chocoholic’s dream and a dieter’s nightmare: a chocolate candy bar weighing in at over 5,000 pounds! It took three days to make, was 124 inches long, 59 inches wide, and 17.7 inches thick. According to the Guinness World Records, it was the largest bar of chocolate ever made.

We are fascinated with the greatest, the biggest, the longest, the fastest, the highest, or the best. Just check out the website for the Guinness World Records. With the click of the mouse, you can discover where to buy the world’s most expensive hamburger, who has the world’s longest beard, or who grew the world’s tallest celery plant. And if that’s not enough for you, today also marks the date in 1994 when the world’s largest omelet in history was made with 160,000 eggs in Yokohama, Japan.

If you are looking for the world’s best gift-giver, though, don’t bother looking in the Guinness World Records. You’re not going to find that record there. When it comes to the absolute best, nothing tops what God gives us each and every day. James tells us that “every good and perfect gift” comes from him. God in fact specializes in giving us good things. Take a look at what God gives us: life, food, rain and fruitful seasons, wisdom, and peace. He lavishes upon us grace, love, forgiveness, compassion, kindness, rest, strength, and power.

But his very best gift—the greatest, most spectacular, most amazing gift of all—was his Son. The familiar words of John 3:16 remind us that “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”

That beats any chocolate bar—no matter how big.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows (James 1:17, New International Version).

To Do

Write a thank-you note to God today for the gifts he has given to you. Be specific.

Also on this day . . .

1822—The city of Boston, MA, was incorporated..

1831—The first bank robbery in America was reported. The City Bank of New York City lost $245,000 in the robbery.

1953—The Academy Awards aired on television for the first time.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.