Dress Up For God

Does God view you more or less when you come to him dressed your best?

I wonder what God would think if we put on our most expensive, least wrinkled, nicest piece of clothing we owned and told him it was for him, I wonder if he would look at us any different than if we came to him dirty and naked.

How do you think God sees you? I have often wondered why we dress up in our “nice” clothes to attend a typical Sunday morning “Church” service in a typical “Church” building. And when I have questioned different friends about this the most popular answer is, “You should want to look your best for God. You’re going into his house, and should want to look your best for him.” Seriously? I mean if you don’t really think about it that does sound like a good reason. But does God seriously scan through everyone sitting in “Church” on Sunday morning and say, “Ooh, John is wearing my favorite suit! I love the way it looks on him! And for that, I will give him the new shiny crown that the angels just finished polishing.” God looks through our clothing, through our skin, and straight to our heart.

If you went to Church one Sunday and you knew that nobody was going to be there, just you all by yourself (and God, of course) what would you wear? Would you put layers of clothes on to “look good for God” or would you come naked? After all he sees you naked anyways.

Sometimes we act as though the clothes we wear define who we are. It’s wrong to judge. But let’s be honest, if you saw someone in a Spiderman costume your first thought would be “Spiderman”. If you saw someone in a police uniform your first thought would be “policeman”. So automatically when you go to church and see a well dressed person your first thought is probably “good Christian”, and if you go to church and see a lady that looks like she just came in off the streets your first thought is probably, “huh? I wonder why she came in here”.

As much as we may tell ourselves we are dressing up to look our best for God, I think a huge percentage of the time that is a lie. God sees you at your rawest, worst moments in life. He knows the deepest, ugliest things about you. If you had a big bruise on your leg and were going out with some friends you would probably ditch the shorts or skirt and wear a pair of pants. Not to deny that the bruise is there, just to cover it up for the night. Sometimes it seems as though we as Christians put layers and layers of clothes on to cover up our bruises, and yeah, it may work for the people that see you at church, but it doesn’t work for God. And if in fact you were honestly putting on your best clothes for God, wouldn’t you want to do that all the time? Because we are supposed to worship him with our every breath, shouldn’t we be wearing our top notch clothes when we get the mail, workout, or sleep? Shouldn’t you want to always “look your best for God”?

I’m not going to judge you if I see you at Church on Sunday in a prom dress or a suit, but just remember, God looks at you through the inside. If you want to look your best for God start with the inside and work your way out. Examine your heart before your closet.

He is one of the few that can talk to me before 9:00am and I won’t complain.

I am not, and pretty sure will never be, a morning person. Five days a week I ride in the passenger seat of Luke’s truck on our way to work, and I can’t remember the last time we spoke even one word to each other during those rides.

This morning we passed the usual three to six persons that take their daily walk on our road. Some of them wave, most of them wave, but some of them do not. As we passed by the dedicated exercisers, I waved, and waved and waved and… Hey! That guy didn’t wave back! Does he know how much effort I put into raising my hand to wave to him when I would much rather take a morning nap? (Which I do sometimes.)

It is quite tiring to lift my hand for a wave that early in the morning. To be honest, I don’t even wave my hand back and forth; it just goes straight up and then straight back down.

I’ll admit I was a little embarrassed. I’m sure if Luke and I could have a conversation that early in the morning he’d say something like “rejected by an old man!” “loser!” “haha.”

Seconds after I was rejected a wave by that old man, we were coming up to a lady walking with water bottles in hand, and she was ready to start her morning off right. I didn’t wave to her. I feared rejection. Instead of waving I closed my eyes and decided to start my day off right with a little nap! Because the seven to eight hours last night was obviously not enough...

Then I started thinking (I hate it when that happens, it interrupts me every time!) I’m really glad that the first time God was rejected he didn’t decide to call it quits and take a nap. If he did than I wouldn’t be where I am today. Literally, I wouldn’t exist. What is even more unbelievable is that he knew he would be rejected, and not just once, not just a wave. His whole creation would be rejected over and over again by the millions.

If I knew that old man wasn’t going to wave back this morning I probably never would have waved to him in the first place. But why? What would I lose by waving to that man and “receiving nothing in return” from him? I’m not sure what I would lose, but I could gain some things like: humbleness. I mean, I waved. Why does it even take me so much effort to wave? I should be awake and happy that I am. Maybe I could learn to appreciate the next person who does take the time to wave back. I will learn to appreciate God for knowing years before I was born that I would reject him, and he still chose to create me.

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I'm not sure how often I will update this. But I figured I should have a dedicated spot for my writings, the ones I let out of my documents folder.