When I was a child and it was cold, I was told to “wrap up” before you go outside. The word “wrap” is used less to identify a coat or sweater or shawl than it once was but it is perfectly descriptive. Put something around yourself to protect against the cold is wise advice.
These days a wrap is an order at a restaurant or fast food place. A turkey wrap is tasty (especially with cheese) but it just doesn’t mean the same as the wrap mom told me to put on. Having grown up in South Texas, the days I had to put a wrap on were rather few in number so that coat or sweater lasted a long time.
This got me to thinking when we are told to wrap up, we are trying to keep something out, the cold or rain maybe. But, Christmas and birthday presents come wrapped. A nice Irish chocolate bar comes wrapped. In these cases, the wrapper is to keep something in place and/or keep it out of sight. There are those patriotic sorts that “wrap themselves in the flag” and that carries a rather political tone.
What about Christians? Do Christians come wrapped? Do they need to be unwrapped? And if they do, how do you unwrap one? Sounds silly doesn’t it, but truly it is the journey of us all, first to learn that we do indeed come wrapped. That wrapping is the God of the universe, the Creator God, whose deep and abiding love is our wrapping. And most of us, I dare say all of us, take the wrap off as soon as we can and immediately forget that we ever had it on!
Our ego, our desire to go our own way, is that nature that tells us to take the wrapping off, we don’t need it anymore, we are just fine the way we are. Then, if we are paying attention, a day, perhaps a moment comes when we realize we want that wrap, we sort of remember how it felt to have the Wrap of God’s love around us and we want it back. Then we spend a lifetime trying to keep it on and remember where we put it in the first place.
Know this dear one, that Wrap of Love can never be taken off! We do indeed forget we have it on and where it came from, but it never comes off, the Eternal God would never let us come unwrapped. Today, take a moment to feel wrapped up in the love that never ceases.
TMM