The other day I realized my gloves were missing. I asked my husband about them and he said, “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.” Uh-oh. He then told me he found one of them between the door and the seat in his car. But not the other.

I was fit to be tied. My gorgeous, soft, ITALIAN, leather glove that he brought me from Italy was missing! There could only be one place it could have dropped – at a friend’s where I had been for a meeting when I last drove his car. I was determined to try to find it, maybe it was still there near where I parked in the street.

But – it had snowed in the two days since I had been there. Nonetheless, my ever indulgent husband drove me to look. He was CERTAIN we would NOT find it. We pulled up to the spot where I had parked. Nothing. I was insistent, (typical) that we keep looking. Perhaps the plow pushed it down the street, I maintained. We drove on slowly about 3-4 houses. My husband began to turn around. “We’ll never find it,” he said.

At that moment, I thought I spotted something dark in the snow up ahead. I yelped, “Up there, I think I see it!” My husband put the car back in drive and forged ahead slowly. I practically jumped out of the car while it was still moving as we approached the dark, snow covered lump.

And there it was. My beautiful, Italian, leather glove.
Crumpled. Frozen. Torn.

I was so happy at first to see it, I didn’t care how ugly it looked. But then when I saw how mangled it was, the comparison to the pristine glove currently residing on my other hand was almost unbearable. It’s beauty was tarnished, there was a HOLE in it, the leather was shredded in places.

As I tried to thaw my glove out on the car’s dashboard, massaging its beautiful skin back to life as best I could, my husband said, “Well, maybe you just wear them in the car, not out in public.”

And that’s when I saw the bigger message in my little situation. God takes us back EVEN IF we are tarnished, beat up, worn out, broken and practically ruined. No matter how awful we feel or “look”, he sees the perfect, unblemished pair of gloves – no matter what they’ve been through. Our imperfections, faults and wounds actually bring Him glory – because we are redeemed by his grace. Beautiful in his sight.

I now continue to wear my gloves – proudly. It’s a reminder to me that I too was broken and unworthy, and God accepted me just as I am.

And not only that – he wants to show me off to the world.

Share