My friends, if you receive a Christmas card in the mail from me, you’ll notice that today’s post is based on my Christmas letter included in the card.
Last January 2nd as I removed my beloved ornaments from the tree, I carefully packed them in their usual oversized plastic container. It’s three feet long, and I separate the layers of ornaments with wrapping tissue paper. This is how I’m able to keep all of my ornaments in one box except for the oversized items that go on the tree first (so I’m sure they’ll fit!) and the lightweight ones that go on last where I need to fill in space.
My husband lugged that big tote box to the basement by himself and had just gotten to the final step when it slipped from his hands and fell to the concrete floor. We both stressed over what might have happened to the most fragile pieces but made the decision NOT to open it and check because, really, what could we have done at that moment?
This past Sunday I took a deep breath as I removed the lid from that box when I began decorating this year’s tree. I found that about a dozen ornaments had broken throughout the various layers including a glass cross, antlers on a moose, a small wreath that held a photo, and a plaster of Paris bright orange rocking horse that my niece Sandy had made me when she was a little girl. Just three items were broken beyond repair, and my husband painstakingly glued everything else back together.
If you look closely at that orange rocking horse, you’ll see that the pieces don’t fit seamlessly. And there are small gaps where tiny fragments have disintegrated into dust. But it’s back on the tree, part of our family’s story.
It was broken and now it’s fixed.
On that long ago night when angels sang to shepherds and the sky held the brightest star ever, God sent his Son to live among us. In a world where we are all broken, we’re able to be fixed through grace and love. Like that rocking horse, none of us is perfect. The years may have taken strength and/or mental agility from some of us. Others of us live with a physical illness, and some of us may be lonely or depressed. But in the eyes of God, we are perfect and we are loved beyond measure.
