—“Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28–29).

The older I get, the busier Christmastime seems to be—parties, shopping, special worship or prayer services at church. But Christmas is not only busy for adults, it’s also a much busier time for children than it used to be. The way children observe Christmas has changed significantly since my childhood in the early ’60s. Today there are many opportunities to be involved in special programs and events at school and other venues. Some parents are run ragged keeping their children involved because they don’t want their kids to miss out on anything. And, as if this isn’t busy enough, there are a hundred different Christmas specials on television for adults and children to watch throughout the season.

During the time I was growing up, our small town in Indiana wasn’t large enough to host a Christmas parade or a lot of festive events. All I can remember is standing in line with other children waiting to receive a mesh Christmas stocking from Santa filled with apples, oranges and nuts, along with a few pieces of candy. Making a Christmas wish list was also significantly different in those days. We children would spend hours poring through the pages of the Sears Christmas catalog dreaming of things we would love to see miraculously appear under the tree on Christmas morning. And as far as television specials, there were only a handful which aired through the month of December. And as children, we waited with great anticipation for them to be broadcast. There were no television service providers that could be accessed at the touch of a remote, recording devices keeping the program available to watch at your leisure, or even cable channels to provide numerous viewing options. We had three channels to choose from and we had to watch Christmas specials at the time they aired, or we would miss them until they returned a year later.

One of the programs my siblings and I waited for with great anticipation was the children’s classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I can still recall the first time it aired at the beginning of December in 1964. I say it is a classic because it is a beloved story which has been aired every year since, being the longest-running annual Christmas television special.

I would find it hard to believe any of my readers are unfamiliar with the story of Rudolph, not only because of the television classic but because of the song first made famous by Gene Autry in 1949. That song, adapted from a 1939 poem, reached number one on the Billboard chart during Christmas of 1949 and went on to sell 2.5 million copies in its first year.

Rudolph starts life as an outcast because of being perceived as a misfit in reindeer society, but he ultimately saves Santa’s Christmas delivery trip by the one characteristic which caused him to be ostracized in the first place: his bright red nose. After the heroic act of leading the way for Santa’s sleigh, “all the reindeer loved him.” It’s a sweet story of acceptance through a recognition that our differences do not have to divide us. That is a lesson we would still do well to learn from.

But there is another aspect of this story that I have been thinking about lately. While Rudolph is wrestling with his misfit condition, he ends up on the Island of Misfit Toys. Here, on this island, are toys with defects. They are imperfect. There is something wrong with every one of them. And, because of his misfit condition, Rudolph felt more at home on this island than he did at the North Pole.

Thinking about this island prompts a question about our own feelings of normalcy and acceptance. It’s easy at times to feel like we don’t fit in and that maybe we too belong on this island of misfit toys. What is it that makes us feel this way? Could it be that society has a much greater impact on our perception of ourselves than we may care to realize? Societal norms may mold our views about appearance and intelligence and popularity and ethical behavior to the degree that we feel inadequate—like misfits. But societal norms can rapidly change and can be significantly different depending on our cultural and geographical environment. What is “the norm” in one culture, may be considered a misfit condition in another. Such instability should cause us to seek a sense of normalcy outside of such fluctuating standards.

In seeking a solution to this, we might have the desire to do away with an island of misfit toys altogether. We may be inclined to curb societal standards, or at least have a greater acceptance of differing standards. If this were the case, people would not have to live on that island. Physical and emotional challenges would not be judged as either good or bad, and people would not be right or wrong in the decisions they make about their own person or the way they relate with others, as long as they are “doing what they think is right in their own eyes.”

I understand the good intention here, but I believe there is a different path to a healthier tolerance and acceptance of each other than doing away with social order. The Island of Misfit Toys is for those who are imperfect. And, to be honest, no one is perfect. Most of us can rationally convince ourselves we should not live on that island because our deficiencies and sins are minor. We become good at hiding those deficiencies to ourselves and others, just like Rudolph was able to hide his nose for a while. And so, we habitually play the game of hiding our less acceptable side so we can look nearly perfect to others. But as I said, no one is perfect. We are broken people, just like the toys that lived on the island. We might not have a blinking red nose, but we all have flaws and shortcomings beckoning us to come to the island. So, instead of just a few being relegated to this Island of Misfit Toys, could it be that we should all pack our bags and move there to live together?

Here is an opposite solution. Acknowledging our imperfections instead of denying them allows us to be accepted in our sin and brokenness, and to accept others in theirs. Instead of trying to fit in by hiding our flaws or being more perfect, we fit in because of our shared imperfections. And this allows us to take up residence in a place where we can be open with each other about our faults and feelings of inadequacy.

In His perfect wisdom, our heavenly Father has provided such a place. He has brought His church into this broken world for just this reason, to be a refuge for the imperfect and the defective, a sanctuary for the flawed and the inadequate. And He beckons all of those who are weary because of being weighed down by their sins and shortcomings and imperfections to come and find rest from their fallen condition. For there is healing and comfort and strength for the misfit on this island of God’s refuge.

Jesus said, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28–29).

Is this not a call to all of us, as we struggle to keep ourselves off this island which we think is fit only for misfits? At this season of the year we celebrate Jesus coming into this world, but He came, not for the fit, but for the misfit. When Jesus was approached by those who thought they were adequate in themselves and didn’t need the healing and rest He provides, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31–32).

How disarming is this beautiful truth! Jesus wants us to own our brokenness. To come to Him with that brokenness and find healing in His grace and rest in His sufficiency. For on the cross He bore the brokenness of humanity in His broken body. He carried the weight of the fall upon arms that were fastened to a tree. And He was put to death as a misfit in order to bring life to a misfit world.

I asked earlier if we sometimes feel like we belong on the Island of Misfit Toys. It’s okay to feel that way, for this is where we all truly belong. Here on this island of God’s grace, which Jesus calls His church, we can rest because the imperfections of our souls and bodies are swallowed up in the perfection of our Savior.

“So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest (Hebrews 4:9–11).