Cutting corners

Chuck’s father was obviously in a hurry to get things done. With one tug, he stripped the lights of the Christmas tree, pulled down most of the hanging decors from the ceiling but leaving traces of adhesive tape dangling, and he started removing the figures of the Crèche to stow them in a box.

[BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!] He picked up his cell phone. “Yes, Dave. I’m just packing things up. See you in the golf course soon.”

“Dad? Where do you want me to put these stars?” Chuck asked.

“Oh, those? Look for the box labeled LR decors.”

Chuck’s dad picked up the box for the figurines. He paused for a second and said, “I don’t have time to wrap each of them with cloth. I guess I’ll just stack them together carefully inside the box.

He put the last figure in and lifted the box to a nearby table to seal it up with tape. Suddenly the bottom of the box gave way and the figurines crashed to the ground.

“Uh-ooh!” Chuck said.

The sight was a mess! A couple of statues were decapitated, others lost their hand and arms, some were cut in half and a few remained intact. “Haste makes waste!” his dad complained. “This is going to take me more time than I thought.”

He whips out his phone, “Dave, I’m going to run a little late. Too complicated to explain now! I will be there perhaps, on the second round.”

“Dad?” Chuck asked.

“Yeah?” his father started gathering the broken pieces.

“Will mom get mad?”

“Mad? I guess not, but upset, yes. This was the first thing she bought for the family when she got her first pay. So it means a lot to her.”

“Then, do we have to tell her?” Chuck said.

“It’s not easy to say the truth, but saying it would lighten the load a bit, buddy,” his father sighed.

“So why don’t we just put them all back in the box and fix them next Christmas?”

“I guess we could do just that, but it’s not good to leave for tomorrow what you can do today,” his dad smiled and patted Chuck’s head.

“Okay, so what do we do before mom arrives?” Chuck smiled mischievously.

“Well, I’m much an expert in gluing things, you know. When I was your age, your grandfather taught me how to put things together.”

“Really?” Chuck was awed. “Like, what did you break, dad?”

“Let’s leave that for another day, son. Why don’t you get some super glue in the kitchen. You’ll find it in the first cabinet right next to the fridge.”

Chuck came back excitedly holding two tubes of super glue.

“Now, let me do it first and you’ll see how easy it is. First, gently blow away the pieces to clean them, figure out how the pieces are set together before gluing them. MAKE SURE you’re putting the right ones together.”

He picked up the head of a sheep and cleaned it. Then smeared a bit of glue and put it together. “ME-EH! ME-EH! BLE-EH!” His dad mimicked the sheep.

“My turn,” Chuck said. He saw a shepherd without a head. He rummaged through the pieces and saw the corresponding piece. He cleaned the pieces, applied some glue and the shepherd was on its guiding the newly mended sheep.

“Yippee!”

“That’s my boy. Do you realize that this way we avoid cutting corners?”

“What does cutting corners mean, dad?”

His dad got a piece of paper and asked, “How many corners do you see?”

“Four!”

“Okay!” he snipped one corner with a scissor and asked, “Now, how many corners are there?”

“…five?”

“Correct! Every time we try to remove a corner, more of them come out.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s like taking a short-cut to avoid doing more or facing harder stuff…you know.”

“Like what?”

“Well, like a while ago you asked if we shouldn’t tell mom, right?”

“But telling her would make her feel bad?”

“I know, but we have to be courageous and responsible enough to stand for our actions. That’s how not to cut corners.”

“Like what else?”

“Then there’s not leaving things for tomorrow. ‘Coz if you do that then you might end up not having time to finish them and you will do them hurriedly.”

“Like when you didn’t wrap the figures?”

“Yeh, [SIGH!] like that!”

“Dad? Did Jesus cut corners?”

“I guess not?”

“How so?”

“He loved us so much that He waited for nine months to be born, He lived like a little boy like you, grew up and followed His Father’s will to die for us.”

“But He’s God, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s like He didn’t want to speed things up or make them easier for Himself. He wanted to adjust to our time and condition to show how much He really loved us.”

“Uh huh….,” Chuck began to pick up another piece to repair while he listened.

“…that’s why His love is real and not second-hand.”

Chuck looked at the figure he just glued and was shocked. “Dad! Dad! I stuck the head of a King on Joseph’s body. What do I do?”

[CLICK!] The front door opens and a woman’s voice is heard, “Chuck! I’m home!”

“Mommy!” Chuck cheered. “Daddy and I also have a surprise for you!”

“I thought you had a golf tournament, honey?” she was surprised to see her husband home.

“I do…but something came up…and….”

“Really? What?” she said as she changed into her slippers.

“Dad was teaching me how not to cut corners!” Chuck proudly showed his mom the Kingly St. Joseph he just repaired.

“Oooh dear….!”