Unwrapped

Inside of you lies the greatest gift you could unwrap this season: the fullness of everything God created when He made you.

This is the season in which we spend time with family and friends, laughing over stories, sharing gifts. Yet for many of us, this is a time when we look in the mirror and don't feel like laughing, don't feel like we have any good gifts to share. It's a bittersweet time; we love this season, but we do not always love ourselves.

There are reasons for that, as there are reasons for just about everything. It could be a long-buried hurt. It could be a wounded self-image. It could be a brokenness you've never spoken about and wouldn't dare dream of invading the holidays with. But as Jesus comes into the manger to heal the world, I can't help but think it's only fitting that we take this season to embrace His healing presence.

We need to unwrap ourselves.

That's pretty much all that's happened over the years - we've wrapped ourselves up in the things that make us look pretty, tying strings around our lives to hold us together, until the package looks prettier than the gift might ever be. Then we live our lives in quiet despair, feeling the weight of our decor. We're just decoration. All wrapped up, we look nice, but no one can experience joy through us. No one can get elated at seeing what we hold. No one can use us. And we were created to be used.

It seems like a giant undertaking, to unwrap all of this that is stuck inside, to get down to the raw creation God intended when He knit each of us together in our mother's womb. We think the process has to be systematic, like unpacking the dishes into a new kitchen or sorting the dirty laundry. This season, put systems and theory and fear aside and become like a little child - rip into the pacakge that is you. Tear into it until you get to the present. Leave scraps of past and future, of flesh and blood, of wound and worry all over the floor. Make a mess; it's Christmas!

Jesus has come.

And you know what you'll find? Just like Christmas morning, when the wrapping paper is strewn about the family floor and everyone's holding that perfectly-thoughtful, excitingly-new something, all of that paper that looked so pretty under the tree doesn't look so pretty any more. It looks like trash. It looks like it's getting in the way. After all that care and effort you put into picking the paper, cutting it to size, creasing the folds, and tying the ribbon, you furiously stand up and just shove it all into a garbage bag and set it out by the garage. There's no room for this rubbish anymore! New adventures are unfolding...

The same can be true for you this holiday season. A new adventure can begin in your life. You must just be willing to unwrap yourself this Christmas . Tear away everything down to the present - what God has created in you this day.  You are an incredible gift.