When is a sock not a sock?

Christmas Day services at church provide a time to really celebrate the most amazing event in human history and have fun together as a church family.  One aspect which the children especially enjoy is having the opportunity to show the rest of the congregation one or two of their Christmas presents.  We certainly saw some great presents this year, and the odd very quirky one (including some stress-relieving poo!)

After the children had shown us their presents, I took out of my bag one of my own presents (still wrapped).  In reality it was one which I'd wrapped up myself in preparation for the service.  What was it?  A single sock.  One of the children eagerly responded to my invitation to unwrap the present.  My thought was that I would use it as an example of a present which was given without much thought or care, and go on to talk a little about how we sometimes are less than thoughtful or fully committed in our giving to God.  He has given the most precious gift to us in his Son, but at times we give him so little.

I decided to ask the members of the congregation to imagine that they were giving a short talk and could use the gift of a single sock as a visual aid.  I gave them a few minutes to think this through and got some very interesting and thought-provoking responses.  One person said that the sock could be used as a Christmas stocking, filled with small gifts and then given to someone as a present.  Someone else suggested that the sock could be made into a glove puppet which could be used to entertain.  A third suggestion was that it could be given to Jonnie Peacock, the amputee Paralympian!

The common factor in all these suggestions, and a couple of others which I've forgotten, is that they are all positive.  In other words, they turn something apparently useless into something of value.  The more I've pondered on this, the more it seems to me to be the heart of the Christian gospel.  Jesus stated that his purpose was to 'find and restore the lost.'  Jesus was roundly criticised by some of the religious leaders of his day because he associated with those who society regarded as of no value.  He welcomed ALL who came to him, regardless of their background and social status.

We live in a society where many feel a great lack of self-worth.  There is a terrible spirit of criticism in evidence all around, particularly in the area of social media.   We seem to think that it's OK to be constantly putting others down.  How much, then, do we need to be reminded that the message of Jesus is that everyone is precious in God's sight.  He is in the business of transformation, because he sees the tremendous potential in each person.  You may sometimes feel like a worthless old sock, but God sees you as something very precious!