Tucked away in a little corner, you might find a present left unopened. People miss it because they’re not looking. And it doesn’t look like most presents. This gift looks plain, even dull. It’s a gift that people avoid, like the fabled fruitcake that gets passed around year after year, because of how it appears.
It is in there, overshadowed by the shiny gifts offering comfort, luxury, happiness, and pleasure. The thing with this special gift is that you need to peel through layers of unwanted things, like old newspaper stuffings. They seem useless, but they’re necessary to keep the fragile gift intact. It’s usually padded by experiences – tests and trials, challenges and struggles.
My gift arrived in an unexpected way this year, so I decided to open it. Tearing away the old wrapping paper of hurt, of pain, and of loss, I found a gift too beautiful for words.
I found hope.
It is there for you, if you look for it. God offers something wonderful underneath the seemingly unbecoming and undesirable.
Christ came, not in a royal chariot into a majestic castle. He arrived in a manger, among livestock, outside an inn. In the midst of the unlovely, hope was born.
