TRUE unconditional love

I really like the Willow Tree figurines from Demdaco.  You know the ones…they look like somebody sat in the back of the store and carved and chipped away at it until it was just right before setting it on the shelf for $9.95.  Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a collector.  I’m not trying to see how many of these little things I can accumulate and display all over my house.  But I do like them.  I especially like the Nativity set.  And apparently so does Demdaco.  For the entire set you will pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $250.00.  I’m not about to spend that much money on something that will just sit on a table for a month and spend the other 11 months boxed up in my attic.  But I can still admire it, and think it’s pretty, and wish it weren’t so expensive.

Well…through a fortunate series of events (I kinda feel bad referring to it as fortunate.  Read on and you’ll understand.) I am now the proud owner of the Demdaco Wise Men set, and I got it for a mere $0.00.  That’s right.  I know it sounds to good to be true, and as with most things that sound too good to be true, there is a catch.  Here we have our first wise man:

Hands to his heart, holding his myrrh or frankincense or whatever, he is overwhelmed by the presence of the newborn (or 2-ish year-old) king. He has no words (perhaps because he has no mouth) to describe his emotions at that moment.

Then there’s this guy:

His only response to being in the presence of the promised Savior is to bow in worship (he’s making the other two look bad). His gift in his hand, he knows that despite whatever prestige he may have in his own land, he is not worthy to be in the presence of this deity.

And then here’s that catch I was telling you about:

It’s tragic, really. I don’t know if it was the long journey, or if the experience was just too much for him, or if Herod finally caught up with them… But something bad happened here. Nothing that can’t be resolved with a little superglue, mind you, but still very bad. The good thing is, we know that Jesus loves us unconditionally, even if we lose our heads sometimes, so he’s good there. And it also seems that his buddies have an unconditional love for him as well, because they haven’t yet taken off running.

So here they are. Offering their gifts just as they are. Not trying to hide their flaws, but knowing that this Savior will receive them with all of their good and bad… Okay, I’m not really going to turn this into anything serious or spiritual. I mean a man has already been decapitated here; that’s serious enough for me.

Now we just need Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, and we’ll be set. But if not, I think I’m still going to set these guys out next Christmas. They deserve to be admired a bit. They’ve been through a lot.