Tightly wrapped

Once again, my heart has been captured by song lyrics:
“We wrap our lives around your life”

Not like a force field (let me contain and examine this thing), but like saran wrap or spandex or an awkwardly wrapped present (getting into all the nooks and crannies)

Remember this moment from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone? What could possibly be in that broom shaped package? *gasp* A broom?! You don’t say!

And a broom is exciting enough for a first year at Hogwarts. But when Harry opens the conspicuously-wrapped present, it’s not just any old broom. It’s a Nimbus 2000. The best broom there is!

That’s the point, isn’t it? We should wrap our lives so closely around the life of Christ (seeing with his eyes, talking with his words, acting from his vision, accepting with his grace, loving with his heart), that it’s *his* shape that starts to show. When the wrapping looks suspiciously like wholeness, freedom, and hope, people should get excited. They should want to tear away the wrapping paper (figuratively of course) and get to the goodness contained within.

I don’t think that even we fully recognize the caliber of the present. Maybe because we’ve bottled our image of God into a manageable box. Wrapping presents is a whole lot sneakier (and easier) when you can leave things inside their boxes. Measure, cut, fold, tape, done. But God isn’t nice and neat (or overly subtle for that matter). If your shape isn’t a teaser of hope …maybe you need to let Jesus out of the box. You may have to get through a few layers of boxes (Have you ever had to open a present like that? I did one year. It was quite an adventure), but once you do…He’ll explode and expand and rattle your wrapping paper. A change that won’t go unnoticed by any who glance your way.

Then you’ll be ready for Hedwig to dramatically place you in someone’s life. And when you actually get the chance to pass on the hope that you have inside, “It’s what I’ve been dreaming of” becomes “It’s better than I could have ever imagined.”

“We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory” 2 Cor 3:17-18

“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. …Life is at work in you.” 2 Cor 4:7-12

That’s a gift worth opening! Does it show?