Well made to be well loved.

While it may be a slogan that LL Bean’s marketing department dreamed up, it’s also a phrase that sums up the human race.

As children of God, created in His image, we are indeed well made and well loved.

Not perfectly made, you understand. As we consider our shortcomings (real or imagined or brought about by comparing ourselves to others), we may not feel well made. We look around and see someone else who has what we feel we lack, whether that’s straighter teeth, a good singing voice, a healthy body, ideal weight, intelligence, curly hair (if ours is straight) or straight hair (if ours is curly), wisdom, a good memory or…well, you know what your own answers are.

Ten years ago a non-profit organization called the Jubilee Project interviewed fifty people for a video. The group was comprised of both children and adults. Individually, each person was filmed as they answered one question posed by the interviewer:

“If you could change one thing about your body, what would it be?”

Nearly all the adults responded quickly with a physical trait they would eliminate. They would rid themselves of stretch marks, high foreheads, big ears, and bad skin. Some complained about having to choose just one supposedly awful thing. The saddest non-specific answer was from a woman who said, “I feel like I’m not adequate enough.”

But the children had difficulty answering the question. With their thinking faces in place, they made “hmmm” noises. They thought awhile! Their answers, when they finally came, were in the form of physical traits they would add. A little boy said he’d like a shark mouth so he could eat a lot. A girl answered that she’d like wings so she could fly. Another boy wanted cheetah legs so he could run faster than anyone else. My personal favorite response from a little girl was, “a mermaid tail.” She added, “I actually like my body the way it is. So just a mermaid tail.”

My wish for you this Christmas is that you can adopt a childlike view of how you are well made. Imagine the Creator looking down at you and saying, “I wouldn’t change a single thing!”

Although I have to admit, discounting the sheer impracticality of the thing, that a mermaid tail would be quite awesome.