When It Matters What We’re Clothed In

I see them in a row. Lined, ready to go. Dressed from raggedy old off-white dresses, to what seems like plastic, flawless flowing gowns ready for a wedding.

They wait, speechless.  Someone is coming. 

Expressions varied on these pre-wedding, waiting women. Some faces seem long, others dead and almost hopeless.  Lifeless, as if none can wake them.

Variations, as many as there are people; tall, skinny, healthy, imperfect. Every bride you can imagine.

Not one bride looking like the other.  Most thinking, that was a good thing.

Everyone comparing. Ones “without” judging the ones with things they could not have. The ones seemingly plentiful lacking equally. Yet, they hadn’t realized it yet.

All were imperfect.  All wanting.  All needing something desperately to make them shine.

In a line, they wait. Like bride-soldiers. Standing in a singular row.

Rumors were flying of, the Knight.  The one who would sweep them off their feet.  Still, the lifeless ones didn’t even blink. Could anything wake them from their sleep?

It was a as if they were shells-of-people, standing stagnant, dead inside, needing the Breathe of Life to wake them from their comas.

I scan the row. Look at them as equally needy, clearly wanting. Together, but each one so very alone.

Unaware of their lack or their desperate need for the other.

And then, like a gust unconscious, the line of women fall off their high places, landing emerged in the waters that lie straight out, directly before them.

And when they rise, I expect only to see, “wet brides”…

But something happened when they were covered by the waters, it was like they stood again completely new.

The brides looked different.  In fact, I couldn’t even see “them” really.

What was dingy, old, wretched, pridefully, superficial, or judgmental…disappeared in the water and never rose again.

The brides also now, didn’t wear different clothes, didn’t have unique faces.  None of them carried their worries, or stood there judging or complacent….

The line of brides were beautifully, yet all looking exactly the same. 

It was as if some Fairy God Mother had illuminated what they were wearing and each one of them shone equally stunning, and sparkling for the darkness to see. Shining for many around them to stop and stare, drawn in by what radiated from deep within.

The women themselves?  They almost weren’t there.  It was as if I could see through them, to the underlining of their hearts.

Their external transparent…unnecessary.

And though they all completely radiated, it was their inside that amazed me; now made pure, alive, healthy, and whole again…with the very heart-beat of the water-maker restarting even the weariest of souls.

All the brides after being emerged in the water equally pure, equally stunningly beautiful.  

Yet, not one of them was their own.

No more strengths and weaknesses. Now, all of them beautifully reflecting the very core of their Maker, the Revival-Worker…their Husband.

And as the bride of Christ why is it we fix ourselves, gather in groupings, evaluate our “goodness” according to how we look, what we have or lack, always using other people or other churches as a reflection of what is in us?

Can’t you hear Him calling today friends?

Can’t you hear Him says, “enter”?

Can’t you hear Him calling His bride, each of us, as individuals and corporately to step into the fullness of His Spirit?

He says let go of the waiting and quench yourself in the everlasting beauty of His goodness…

He says stop worrying and calculating, clinging to worldly things or comparing.

Won’t we dunk ourselves into what He has for us, drowning our identity, so we can stand and look like Him completely, never to fear again?

Won’t we lay down ourselves and stand made a new?

He is coming friends. And He is looking for a bride who is spotless and without blemish. One not clean because of their own righteousness.

All of our good works being filthy rags without His power working in us.

Will you stand with your rags waiting?  Or will you jump into all He has for you today…His redemption…

And let Him wash you anew?

“Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure” ~ Revelations 19:7