Worship Opportunities

One of my all-time favorite children’s stories is Corduroy by Don Freeman. I have fond memories of reading it as a child, and as I’ve grown older, not only am I still swept up into the love and magic of childhood imagination, but I appreciate the story for its gospel undertones.  

Corduroy is a little stuffed bear perched on the shelf of a big department store. Day after day, he and the other toys wait on that shelf, hoping to be purchased. One day, a little girl named Lisa spots Corduroy on that shelf and asks her mother if she can buy the bear for her. 

Her mother sighs (as most mothers do) and says, “Not today, Lisa. I’ve spent too much money already.” And then she crushes her daughter’s dreams further, highlighting Corduroy’s imperfections and says, “Besides, he’s missing a button for the shoulder strap of his overalls.” Lisa sets down the bear and sulks out of the store. 

Corduroy didn’t realize he was missing a button, so once the store closes and the shoppers are gone for the day, he sets out on a mission to find his missing button, fix himself, and perhaps be more desirable for the next day’s shoppers. 

After a couple of little fiascos, he finds a button on a mattress that looks like “his” missing button. He pulls and tugs until… POP! Off comes the button, but down Corduroy tumbles and falls into a floor lamp, creating a big bang. The night watchman hears the commotion and can‘t find the exact source, but he discovers Corduroy sheepishly hiding under some covers with his eyes peeping out of the blanket. The watchman puts him back on the shelf, where Corduroy is left feeling defeated and still very imperfect and undesirable.

The next day, we meet Lisa again. But this time, she skips her way into the store, carrying her own money, not asking for her mother’s money. She happily tells Corduroy she came to get him, rejects the cashier’s offer to give her a box to carry him home, and instead lovingly tucks him under her arm, hops up the stairs to her apartment, and has a tiny bed set up beside hers just for him. 

She also has a needle, thread, and a button to fix what he felt was so unlovely. Had anything changed about Corduroy? Had he worked his way into being more desirable to Lisa? No! He was the same, imperfect bear she had seen the day before.

Had Lisa changed? No! Her love for Corduroy was the same being just as he was. Affectionately, Lisa says, “I like you the way you are, but you’ll be more comfortable with your shoulder strap fastened.”

What changed when Lisa purchased him with her own money? He was now hers. He would now have her intervention to fix what was broken. 

In response, we see through the illustrations Corduroy’s gratitude and love follow the one who loved him first– Lisa! 

This Christmas, we don’t celebrate a magical children’s story but the true story of God doing for us what we could never do. Our sin is a far greater problem than Corduroy’s missing button. We could never work our way or polish ourselves up enough to gain a different standing before God. But out of an overflow of His great love for us, He purchases us at the cost of His greatest gift to humanity: His very own son, Jesus Christ. He takes us from condemned to justified. Rejected to belonging. From orphan to adopted.  

Let’s have ourselves a Corduroy Christmas, marveling in that generous gift of redemption through Christ.

You can purchase a copy of Corduroy by Don Freeman here if you’ve never read it before!