We're Just a Couple of Misfits

Don't you love the Christmas season?  The birth of Christ, trees and ornaments, lights and presents, Santa and sleighs.  The Christmas season brings joy and love and celebrations - and incessant Christmas programming.  Instead of the regular evening TV shows, we are blessed with a thousand chances to watch shows like, "A Christmas Story", or "It's a Wonderful Life", or "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas."  Or "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."  Oh boy!  Don't we all just adore that strange flying creature with the shiny red nose?  The one that glows "like a light bulb?"  The one who didn't quite fit in with all of the other reindeer but in the end saved Christmas?  How can we not?

Not familiar with the story?  Well, please allow me to enlighten you.

Poor Rudolph, son of the infamous Donner, and his lovely wife, Mrs. Donner, was sadly born with a deformity.  No he wasn't missing an arm.  He didn't have two heads or one too many eyes.  No, this baby buck was born with a red nose. And, even worse, this red nose glowed!  Like a light bulb.

Donner was disgusted with his son's imperfection.  He was ashamed even.  He tried to cover up the nose with mud, which always worked for a while, but eventually rubbed off.  Even Santa (who in this story is a real jerk) was dismayed with the beak on this buck, making it very clear that Rudolph would never be allowed to pull the sleigh. Afer everyone found out about his non-conforming nose, little Rudolph was no longer allowed to play in the reindeer games.

And so he did what any down and out, rejected and despised reindeer would do - he ran away.  He left his family, the doe who thought he was cute, his dreams and aspirations, and he set out on his own.  On his journey he met a young elf who was also running away.  This little guy didn't like being an elf at all, but instead wanted to be a dentist.  Together, reindeer and elf, an unlikely pair, they embarked on a voyage away from home, to embrace life and be who they wanted to be without the fear of ridicule.  And as they left, ready to cast off their old lives, they sang a song. And in this song they said these words:

"We're just a couple of misfits."

Pause the story.  Doesn't that resonate with us?  I know it did with me.  Immediately I could relate to Rudolp and the elf.  They were oddballs.  One had a deformity and couldn't be the reindeer he wanted to be.  The other had a strange passion (who wants to be a dentist?) and didn't want the life he had been destined for.  They didn't fit in.  They were different.  They were non-conformists - one by choice and one by nature.

Such am I.  A misfit in so many ways.  I have imperfections.  I have faults.  I don't fit in sometimes.  Nothing about me is perfect or completely normal.  But doesn't that describe all of us?  Who among us are always perfect, spotless, deformity free?

We have phsyical deformities. I snore too loud when I sleep.  I have gained weight over the years.  I can't see two feet in front of me without my glasses.

We have emotional deformities.  I am too sensitive sometimes.  I whine alot.  I worry too much.

We have spiritual deformities.  I struggle with temptation and sin.  I sometimes doubt God's work in me.  I have at times wondered about the reality of it all.

In so many ways, we are deformed.  Like Rudolph and the elf, "We're just a couple of misfits."

But you know what the great thing is?  They weren't the only ones.  They stumbled upon a place called Misfit Island, where all the discarded and unwanted toys lived - a train with square wheels, a cowboy who rode an ostrich instead of a horse, a bird who swims instead of flies.  They were all a bunch of misfits.  But they were who they were made to be.  And they were content.

And what's even greater is that Rudolp and the elf, along with some help from a prospector, ended up saving lives and saving Christmas.  In spite of their misfit status, their imperfections and apparent faults, they made a difference.

The amazing lesson here is that even though none of us are perfect, and even though we are all a bunch of misfits with all kinds of failures, God still loves us and He can still use us.

Consider the words of King David in the Psalms:

"For you formed my inward parts, you wove me in my mother's womb.  I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made..."    

God created us.  Fearfully. Wonderfully.  Precisely.  Sure we have imperfections, but He knows every single one of them and He still loves us and wants to use us.

So today, be a Rudolph.  Take your glowing red nose and save the day for someone.  Let God use you.  And don't worry anymore about your faults.  God will fix what needs to be fixed and use what He can use.

Be available to Him.  He loves you.

You are a crazy, deformed, messed up and broken misfit.

But who isn't?