The living present? (4,2,4)

'the' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'living present?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'living' could be 'life' (synonyms) and 'life' is located in the answer.
'present?' could be 'gift' (present is a kind of gift) and 'gift' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'of' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?