Unwrapped!

Nothing is more frustrating for me than dealing with tape in wrapping or mailing presents! Take yesterday!  I located the tape in a drawer and attempted to attach it to a package.  The tape was stuck in a thin strip where it had ripped, and no amount of unwinding made it revert to the original width.  Throwing it aside, I decided to look further.

Another roll of tape looked promising, but I could not find the end, since it was "invisible" tape and stuck fast. Despite running my finger over the smooth surface of the roll repeatedly, I could not discern where the tape began. What I needed was the desk tape dispenser I had misplaced.

I found it in the kitchen where I had set it in clearing off  my former wrapping station, the dining room table. Carrying the dispenser to the bedroom where I was working, I put it on the bed beside the gifts and Christmas paper.  When that tape failed to make a good hold, I remembered why I had stopped using it before.

But all that was nothing compared to sealing a mailing box.  The trick was to try pull plastic tape from the dispenser, cut it, and have it not reseal itself before I could grab it. The complicated cutting system had to be backward and upside down, I decided, cutting myself on the sharp edge and getting the tape stuck in a hole presumably made to hold the end. Worse yet was keeping the tape straight as I stretched it across the box.  It invariably wrinkled, then left a little tab dangling when I sealed the corners.  What a relief when I finally finished! No wonder people use gift-wrapping services and mailing centers!

I love giving gifts.  Every imperfect, lopsided package is a labor of love.  I think about the first Christmas, when Mary wrapped the first Christmas Gift in her labor of love.  The Gift was from God, given through Mary, who wrapped Him in swaddling clothes with love and tenderness in apparently primitive circumstances and surrounded by lowly animals.

I heard a man on television last night who shed light on these circumstances.  He said that the sheep the shepherds were tending in the fields nearby were sacrificial lambs, being raised in utmost care for their special purpose, intimating that the little lambs in the stable that night were not filthy, unkempt creatures, but clean, unblemished animals.

Luke 2:12, explains, "And this will be a sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."  The Lamb of God! A sign the shepherds would understand, for they came and found Him. Would that more would understand and accept this Gift today!