Words from WW Blog

I can not wrap a gift. When I do, it looks like the package equivalent of an extremely “bad hair day.” If a piece of wrapping paper is sticking out, I smother it with tape. I am able to use half-a-roll of tape to wrap a small jewelry case that holds a necklace. Gift bags were invented for dysfunctional packaging guys like me.

Last Sunday, in my youth Sunday School class, I gave the students a T and F test on what the Bible says about Christmas. Twenty-five questions were laced with falsehoods that sounded so true. For instance, weren’t there three wise men since we sing the carol “We Three Kings?” And, wasn’t the place where Jesus was born made out of wood because that’s what all the nativity scenes are made of?

I emphasized to my students that they were to answer according to what the BIBLE said. The results brought some reality to the hybrid Christmases our culture has created. If I would have updated my test as opposed to giving the one that I have had for three decades, I could have put questions on it about “Elf”, the movie; eggnog, Christmas tress, mistletoe, the Grinch, fudge, and fruitcake.

Like my amateur wrapping abilities, the Christmas many of us have come to believe has wrapped the Christ-child in so many layers of glittery paper that He’s been mummified. The truth has been expanded, and the expansion has become the dominant story. Scrooge is better known than the poor shepherds and the elves are on center stage more than the heavenly hosts who appeared to the shepherds.

If we listed the books of the nativity, some would inadvertently reply, “Matthew, Mark Twain, Luke, and John Grisham.”

I would say, “Bah! Humbug!”, but some might mistake that for being the words uttered by King Herod…as he watched “Miracle on 34th Street” with Rudoplh’s nose shining in he sky above.

“All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

After a flight from Atlanta to Phoenix, I had a need to go to the restroom. It was 9:00 in the evening so the terminal traffic had thinned out. I entered the restroom, rounded the corner, and was taken back by the fact that an African-American lady was standing at the first sink. At that moment, I realized that I had gone into the women’s facilities instead of the men’s.

I said, “Oops!” and made my retreat, shouting my apologies. She laughed and excused my transgression. When we boarded our flight to Colorado Springs an hour later, who do you suppose was sitting in the row directly in front of us?

I apologized to her and assured her that I did not make a habit of going into women’s restrooms. She laughed again and told me it was okay.

The “Oops Moments” of life. As our face turns red in embarrassment, they remind us of our humanness and capacity for cluelessness. Even the most sophisticated and with-it person has moments of “oopspicity.” It might be a fender-bender, or a piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of a dress shoe as someone is leaving the restroom, or a burp that emerges in the middle of a board of directors’ meeting. No one is immune from “oopsing it up.”

As forgiven followers of Jesus, we have the assurance that the moments that we are most embarrassed about are wiped away. Just as Peter was forgiven for some of the things he said that he didn’t thin k about, we are forgiven for the moments we wish we could push the rewind button and turn back time.

Bottom line: None of us are perfect, even when we pretend to be. That truth keeps me humble…and checking my zipper whenever I come out of the restroom…no matter which restroom I’m exiting.