Christmas is such a festive time of year, and with all the hustle and bustle of gift shopping I simply wanted to sit back and be entertained so, I thought how could I let the season pass without tuning into my favorite holiday classic Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. It had been a while since I’d seen this red nosed beauty so, I committed to watching it as if it were for the ,very, first time.

I just love animation ,and the promise of simplicity it promises to bring so, I found myself humming along to the opening music which made me feel…delightful. What so rudely interrupted my optimism was Rudolph’s father, Donner, reacting to Rudolph’s red nose; a red nose that was supposed to be black when he was born. My heart fell as Rudolph’s father reacted to this with  contempt. What is this? How did life’s reality sneak its way into my holiday cheer? I watched as Donner’s  solution, to Rudolph’s red nose, was to cover up what he could not understand. Hmm, just when we thought we could count on animation to take us away, like Calgon, we discover that even in this world we are still covering up what we don’t quite understand…good grief!

Poor Rudolph is made fun of and then discarded after the black nose, his father created, pops off exposing his very bright red nose underneath. The response to Rudolph’s red nose  sends the eyes of every deer ,and doe in circles as they announced not to let Rudolph join in any reindeer games going forward.

What do you do when there is nothing you can do? It is unfortunate because as a result of Rudolph being a misfit he is then banned to the Island of the misfits where other toys with strange oddities, that no one can explain, find themselves living out the remainder of their toy life span alone. But it surfaces that these toys aren’t just waiting or lonely, but they wait with hope to be rescued and discovered by Santa Claus so that, they too can be loved by a little boy or little girl someday.

Misfits being banned to an island made me think of Moses in the bible, a man that was too Egyptian to be Hebrew, and too Hebrew to be Egyptian, and I got to thinking, how would one deal with not knowing where they belonged. Furthermore what do you do when you don’t fit in anywhere? Many would agree with banning all the misfits to some island because at times people settle on ,it being easier, not to interact with misfits at all then to embrace what appears different or foreign. It is wrong to ostracize others for being different, but this is where the God we serve is different; for He created difference which is what makes His bouquet of flowers something to behold.

Yes, at first being a misfit would create feelings of abandonment and loneliness, but it is in being set apart, and consecrated to God that one , in my opinion, has the best chance to succeed in this world. Don’t be fooled, no matter what anyone says, when you have no friends God is your friend, and when you don’t feel loved God loves you, and when you have no one to talk to God will talk to you-anytime, any day, any hour- He will never leave you nor forsake you. Promise.

Allow God to renew your mind, through Holy Spirit,and you will rise as a leader with beauty for your ashes, and with the power and authority of the one who died for your sins inside you.

And if you’re lucky maybe you will lead two million, like Moses, being a mouth piece for God or perhaps you will be like Rudolph flying high above the naysayers, the doubters, and the discouragers with his bright red nose, I might add, leading the others into a place they were scared to go- the land of the misfits- only to embrace what they could not understand, and just didn’t want to see. For when you discover God he is about all the misfits, and not excluding what is different ,but embracing what is different.

Happy Holidays

DCL Ministries