I Wrapped It So The Flaw Would Not Show

You turned it twice before the paper went on.

That is the detail. Not once, to work out which way round it should sit. Twice, so that the seam that puckers ended up underneath, against the tissue, where the first thing anybody saw would be the good side.

And then you carried it in the car with the good side up, which is not something a person does on purpose.

And then you sat in her front room for two hours with it on the table.

I want to talk about those two hours, because they are the actual subject and I do not think you have described them to anybody.

You were not visiting. Not fully. Part of you was tracking that parcel the entire time. When she picked it up. When she started on the tape. The half second where the paper came away and her hand went underneath to turn it.

And the whole time, a low readiness, in case her face did something.

That is a strange way to spend two hours with somebody you love. And the thing that produced it was a seam about an inch and a half long.

I am not going to tell you the seam does not matter. You made it and you can see it and you will see it every time you are in that room for the next ten years.

What I want to look at is what the hiding cost, because it cost you an afternoon.

Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands

There is a moment after the resurrection that I have never got over, and it is about a body that could have been presented any way at all.

Thomas has said he will not believe without the marks. And Jesus comes and says this.

Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. (John 20:27, King James Version)

Behold my hands.

He kept the wounds. That is the thing. A resurrected body, and the marks are still in it, and He does not cover them or explain them or apologize for them. He holds them out and says look.

And He leads with them. That is what Thomas gets first. Not a word, not a proof, not a display of glory. Hands.

You are being shown a Christ who held out the damage first, and John 20:27 has Him offering the marks rather than hiding them. The Holy Spirit is the one who takes a moment in a locked room and lays it down on a parcel turned twice before the paper went on.

And notice what the wounds were doing there. They were not a flaw to be excused. They were the evidence of what He had actually done, and Thomas needed them and would not have been convinced without them.

You have marks that carry the history of the work, and it is already settled in the written word that they were held out rather than covered over. His Spirit is the one who says behold my hands over a woman who has spent two hours watching a parcel.

The hiding cost the afternoon

Now let me stay with those two hours, because that is where the actual loss was.

The seam is small. If she had seen it immediately, she would have thought nothing, or thought something for about a second and forgotten it, and the afternoon would have been an afternoon.

What actually happened is that two hours went by in a state of low readiness, in a room with a person you love, while a conversation ran on around a woman who was only half in it.

You are free to hand it over unhidden, and John 20:27 has a risen Christ holding out the marks before He says one word. The Holy Spirit is the one who gets a woman back into a room she was only half in.

That is the price of the wrapping. Not a wounded pride. An afternoon.

And it will be the price again next time, and the time after, because the seam is only the current instance of a permanent condition. Everything you make will have one.

And this: that seam is not a measure of you. It is a seam. And nothing in the sight of God attaches to whether a thing came out flat.

You are not obliged to manage anybody's first impression, and heaven has never once asked a maker to present the good side. John 20:27 has Christ leading with the wounds, and the Spirit of God is the one who takes the tracking out of an afternoon.

And do not point it out either. That is the other version, where a woman gets in first and shows the flaw before anybody can find it, and that is the same anxiety facing the other way.

You have permission to hand it over unhidden and unmentioned, and this is yours: the marks were held out and no explanation was attached. It is written in John 20:27 that He said behold my hands, and the Holy Spirit is the one who makes an unhidden thing an ordinary thing.

Flaw facing outward, and say nothing

So here is the ask.

The next one you give, put the flaw facing outward.

Not hidden underneath. Not turned twice. If there is a puckered seam, let it be on the top when the paper comes off. If it is a lopsided edge, that edge points at her.

And say nothing about it. Not a word, not a joke, not getting in first.

You are able to let a mark be seen without a word attached, and John 20:27 has a risen Christ holding out marked hands with no explanation. The Holy Spirit is the one who makes an unhidden thing an ordinary thing.

Then be in the room. That is the whole second half. Talk to her about whatever you would have talked about. Look at the thing when she looks at it, the way you would look at anything.

If she notices the seam, she notices the seam. That is a person seeing an object and it is not an event.

And make the next one this week in twenty minutes, badly, so that there is another one coming and this is not the last impression anybody gets.

You are covered while a flaw sits on top when the paper comes off, and John 20:27 is the ground under that. The written word has a risen Christ holding out marked hands without covering them, and the Spirit of God is present in a front room where somebody is finally in the conversation.