What a wonderful thought this is. We cover our Christmas trees with tinsel that is supposed to look like silver but it's really just tin-foil; tinsel is not really what it is supposed to represent. God represents us to the world by calling us by the name of His Son, but then He actually makes us what He calls us. He gives us the nature of His own Son and, thereby, makes us His own sons and daughters. The glory He puts on us is not just tin-foil; it is the pure gold righteousness of His own Son whereby we now shine like stars. It can change the way we look at others and ourselves to recognize that God allows us to bear the name and the nature of His own Son.

I remember sitting in a worship service and listening to a beautiful young woman sing. Hers is one of the most beautiful voices I ever heard. People listen to her and weep. But I have heard her weep as we have talked time and again about the sin she struggles with in her life. In the past she had been unfaithful to her husband and as a result she felt terrible guilt, and to escape her guilt she would drink too much, and when she drank she lost control, and when she lost control it was usually her own children who got in the way. Then, with the guilt of that sin on her conscience, the cycle would repeat itself again and again. Hers has been a horror story of modern family life; yet there she was, singing of the wonderful grace of Jesus.

I confess that there was a piece of me that considered this hypocrisy, a curious irony that one so flawed could sing so flawlessly. And then I realized that once again in my life I was looking at the tinsel on a twig. That beautiful voice was the tinsel -- the representation of the beauty of God draped on a twisted twig. Her voice, like the tinsel, was the Lord's banner for all the world to see. By it He said, "I give the despicable my name and my nature. No one is holy enough for me, I have to gift you with my holiness. I make the ugly, beautiful. I make the unglorious, glorious. I make that which is black with shame, shine like gold."

When we realize that it is not our goodness or specialness that makes us special to Him, the real message of Christmas becomes clear to us. Because God does not reject what is despicable but takes it and makes it special to Himself, making it useful and glorious despite unfaithfulness, we understand that though we have been unfaithful, weak and failing, we can turn to Him again. His acceptance is what gives us the courage to take our sins to Him in open confession and humble repentance. His loving forgiveness is what gives me the privilege of urging you to come to Him again to ask for fresh cleansing and new use. He who used a stable for a king's bed can use a sinner for the king's service.

Has your sin made you flee from Him, made you turn away from Him in shame, made you doubt that His power can again enter your life to try to straighten out what you have botched so badly? Don't you believe it! He who decorates twigs with tinsel can yet have a design for your life, and in this Christmas season He tells you so again. He gives tinsel to twigs, and forgiveness to the twisted and shattered. Our God loves to decorate. He loves you enough to tell you so in the message of Christmas He spreads across the world again this year for all to see in the obvious symbols of glory, but also in His special care of the lowly -- which He would also have you see.

As tinsel can decorate even a twig with beauty, our heavenly Father covers our shame with His glory. In the images of the season He puts His Son within your reach -- even in your hands again. Our God loves you so much that He puts His precious Son into your hands again to receive and to cherish. If your faults and failures shame you it may seem unlikely that He would deal so beautifully with you -- improbable, even impossible. But then you must remember the message of Christmas that is blowing 'round again this year. Ours is the God who loves to decorate. He sent His Son for sinners. He even puts tinsel on twigs.