Kind of an Ugly Gap

There's a gap - kind of an ugly gap - in our Christmas tree.  I think it's the spot where the straps held it tight to our roof on the drive home. The branches hang lower, and a patch of brown needles gapes, unbeautifully.

And it was bugging me all day, but the tree just kept standing there all twinkly, wearing its collection of lights and homemade ornaments, staring rather impudently at my own flawed exterior whenever I sighed about that gap.

And it's so silly, because of course I could spin it around and show the full side, the rich side, the lovelier side, and leave the gap at the back where it won't be seen.

But God didn't send his Son at Christmas to make things look better.
He sent a Redeemer, to transform the way things are.

And the last thing I need for my own gaps - ugliness of character, my selfishness and sin - is an image consultant.  I don't need to look better, don't need to spin from view to hide the ugliness.  I need wholeness. Healing. Redemption.  Our whole aching world does.

And that's Christmas, right? That's why God gave Jesus - to meet us where we are, right here in our sin. To redeem us. To make us whole. Healed. And lovely.

So instead of hiding that gap, I filled it. And once I started shuffling things around, I found that that gap is just the right place for ornaments that are too large for ordinary branches.  They hang down from the branches above and dance in that space as if it's what I intended all along.

They redeem it.
And make it lovely.




Merry Christmas, friends.
xo.