Resaying Yes to the Dress

Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten Me days without number. Jeremiah 2:32

This is not where I wanted to go today...but here we are. You wrestle with the passages God gives.

It has been hard around here lately for the reason of the verse above. It is being lived out in the life of a family member, and has been true in the lives of a lot of family and friends over the years. They have “committed” themselves in marriage only to forsake or be forsaken by their spouse, what those clothes represented, forgetting the things they promised, the person they claimed to love til death parts them, and the commitment they made to look not elsewhere for the love and companionship. It is so hard to watch. And it is hard for the “forgeter” to explain away. I am sure that when gals look at their dresses after a period of time, they have one of two responses...joy and gratefulness, or a shudder of “what did I get myself into.” They forget, or choose to forget, the joy of that day of commitment, the hope of a bright future together. No one stands there thinking that anything could go wrong, that any trial will separate them, that any other person could know them and love them the way the one they are marrying could. Expectations are high that together they can conquer anything. And then reality hits. That person you thought you knew well, you find you don't know at all. The goals you thought you had with the other you find were more dreams than true plans. Things aren't what you thought they would be, though you really don't know what it is you did expect. It is the adjustment to the real person you married AND learning about yourself and your own responses to unrealized expectations that makes the first years, and sometimes subsequent years challenging at times.

But this is God we are talking about. He is the perfect husband. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what we need, how we need to grow, and how to comfort, direct, correct, and protect us. And yet we question His love for us and sometimes even rue the day we “married” Him. We want to forget the commitment to love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We want to walk away for a while at least and do our own thing, seek our own good and glory, and try things on our own. We forsake the very one who loved and wooed us. And the longer we choose to stay away, the more we forget the one who loved us and still stands waiting for us to come home. He warns of how the wandering bride will fall into shame and not have a better life with the others they think will offer them such a thing. True contentment will only be found by returning to the one who never stopped loving them, but they just can't seem to humble themselves and admit their sin and straying and come home. Few find the path back. And there is great sorrow all the way around. Even the land suffers and moans with the consequences of such a violation of God's love. We tend to think of violating God's law, and we forget that when we wander from God and His presence, we are violating more than just a set of rules. The rules are to warn us that we are wandering in our hearts. They sometimes stun us into wondering what we are doing. When I think about stealing or cheating, I surprise myself with my own selfishness and sinfulness. The commandments not to do these things let me know that those tendencies in my heart are not having the mind of God. And that if I act on them, I am far from the heart of God. I have left God's presence, thinking that He does not see or does not care. I convince myself that He is too strict or stingy or or demanding instead of seeing that I am too self-serving, greedy, and demanding things that God has chosen not to give me at this point and time FOR MY OWN GOOD. He always has my good in mind, and when Satan deceives me into thinking that he has more to offer than God does, I fall for the lie. When I fall for the lie about God's love for me, it is no wonder I fall for the lie that my husband does not love me. When I think God doesn't understand me, I can't expect to think that my husband does. Satan makes anything else look more appealing, more fulfilling, and more profitable than the true love and faithness of our husbands, spiritual or earthly. HE IS A DIRTY, ROTTEN LIAR bent on our destruction by giving us what we think we need instead of allowing us to be content and joyful with the beauty of what we have.

It doesn't start with our husbands, it starts with a lie about God, about the purpose of marriage, and the enticement that we are missing something better. We forget the dress, the white, the love that will fulfill if we trusted that God brought us there. We have to set our minds on things above, and not just on the earthly things. We need to give God our expectations and live each day grateful for the grace He gives us to make it through this earthly journey, and being willing to not call this place our home and set our hopes on the world to come. There will be no disappointment there. People will let us down, will disappoint, will act in their own interests and not always treat us the way we want to be treated. But they will also play the role of loving us in ways we need, to treat us better at times than we deserve to be treated. Two are better than one, it says in Proverbs and Ecclesiates. God knew He was so much different than us that He gave us other people, and people of the opposite sex to make us a whole, dependent on one another, but not whole without fellowship with Him. Life is not what we hope, but it is good. Not until we are never tempted to sin or have to put up with the sins of ourselves and others will those deep holes in our souls be totally filled. Until then, dear Beloved of the Lord, hang in there! Be the bride you are supposed to be (or the groom, if you are a dude) and work together to draw each other closer to the image of Christ. Don't forget the wedding dress, the commitment and promise of the Groom, and be like Sarah and do not fear. God's plan is always for our good. Don't believe the lie. Say yes to the dress.

Moth-eaten Garments - Corporate greed

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. James 5:1-2

Corporate greed...everyone is talking about it. Those who work for anyone seem to think that their bosses owe them more than they are getting. Anyone who makes more than them or gets promoted instead of them must be doing something illicit to have gotten there. There is a lot of scepticism in the world about those in a higher station than we are.

But God knows the heart. Not all people with money are evil, cheating, or treating their workers badly. On the contrary! God says He will bless people with riches, though not all riches are monetary. And for those who see injustice throughout the world, and in their own neighborhood, be assured that God sees and will act.

The moths will eat their garments. They don't tend to eat polyester and cotton, but wool, the fabric of choice for the rich. They will not be able wear that which they have spent their money on. They will not be able to walk around looking successful...for God will send the moth to show what is really in their hearts...holes. Their riches rot...their grains, spices, and foods that they have stored up for themselves, they will have to be thrown out because they are worthless. Their gold and silver will be corroded and rusty. I didn't know that they could rust...or maybe it is the gook that makes them no longer be shiny...that corrosion that shows up on my silver flute while it sits out, the corrosion that makes you have to polish the silverware before you use it. The gold that looks pale and unvaluable instead of invaluable...that ugliness of storing it up instead of paying people for the work they have done, that will eat their flesh, here or in the life to come.

So we sit back and say, “Good, they will get what they deserve, the ________s” Well, people, we are setting the standard for our own judgment. Whatever measure we use for others will be used for us. Be aware of your own bitterness, your own anger. Yes, we should stand up against injustice...when people are promised something for work, they should get what they earn. To renege on a promise is not ok. But it is a dangerous place to be to wish harm on anyone according to what they “deserve.” If we get what we deserve, we are in serious trouble. We deserve death, condemnation. We receive mercy, grace, and forgiveness. We are to extend those things to our fellow humans who are caught up in sin. That old saying, “There but for the grace of God go I,” is more true than we know. It is not to excuse their behavior, but to try to guide them out of the mindset and habits that have led them to think of no one but themselves. It is one thing to force their hand to comply, and another to change their hearts to not only comply, but to better benefit those they come in contact with in business and life. If we show what love and mercy look like, there is no doubt that some will see it and come to an understanding of the God who gives. People like John Newton, former slave trader, change their minds, their actions, and their impact on the world. And some people will never change, but God defends the rights of the needy. To encourage people who are down and out, to redirect them to more trustworthy bosses, to meet their needs in the meantime...that is what we can do.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that also will he reap.

The real warning is that when you are given the role of leader, provider, employer, and gain wealth, to make sure you are just in your dealings, following through on your promises to others, and paying them whatever you owe them. It is easy to get lax when it comes to appreciating what people do for us.

Keeping our garments from being moth-eaten, that is our goal. God will keep the worm away and let us wear His majesty to show his glory, and not try to display our own meager loveliness.

Clothing and debtors

On garments taken as pledges they stretch out beside every altar. Amos:2:6

Once again we look at the misuse of justice written in scripture concerning cloth. Whether this was the cloak or the regular clothing of the people who owed them something, we do not know, but God is not happy with them...to the point that He refuses to NOT take action against them. To take one's clothes in that day and age was to take their life. For many this was all they owned. Nakedness is spoken of and apparently was truly a condition of the desperate. To remove their clothing and leave them in a loin cloth or less would be a grievous act, not only of lack of mercy for their plight, but also lack of mercy for their reputation. The total humiliation of it for the person defrocked, for their families, for God's reputation as a giving and forgiving God was more than He was willing to put up with.

Not only did they lack mercy, they then went to church, perverted the whole worship into an orgy, and used the clothes that they had stolen as theirs, or as picnic blankets. They drank wine confiscated also from the poor, and had no unclear conscience about the whole matter. They felt justified, satisfied, and proud of their position as boss. They had no humility before their own boss, God, and showed no mercy. God was going to do them the same favor and show them no mercy, as well. With the same measure we use, God will measure out to us...in mercy, favor, wrath, and love. Those who give, to more will be given, and to those who take, all will be taken from them.

God owes us nothing, but He loves us anyway. He acted on our behalf to draw us to Him. He blessed us when we didn't deserve it, and pours out mercy when He could pour out wrath. But this doesn't last forever...He will some day repay those who scorn His goodness and do not reproduce it in their lives toward others.

And then to play church when we are filled with hatred toward our fellow workmen, well, He sees that as unforgivable. The verses before these speak of them first rejecting the law of the Lord, not keeping it, and lying about it to themselves and others. They exchanged truth for error first, and then started treating their fellow man with the same scorn. It all starts with one's attitude toward God. When we see who we are in His eyes, His holiness and our sinfulness, we have compassion on our fellow sinners. We see that no matter how hard we may try to love, to be patient or kind, we fail miserably. We hurt others intentionally or unintentionally, and we have to humble ourselves and apologize for not being what others need us to be. But when we take God's Word and see Him as less than He is, and us as more than we are, then we get an attitude. We are owed something, so we take. We want justice, so we mete it out however we see fit, even if it destroys our neighbor.

In this world of people hurting one another, we look for answers. World peace...when we can't live in peace with our spouse, community unity...when we can't even be consistent in keeping our homes together. We wish people could just get along, but there is always selfishness. We want others to be unselfish while we get what we want. And the answers we look for always require the others to change what THEY are doing, thinking, and being.

The only answer is to bow before the throne of God and be humble before Him, and taking that humility to those around us. Demanding what we want solves nothing, even when it is something good. Imitating the God of mercy and giving is the answer to a world in pain. If we all give to others grace and mercy, we all receive grace and mercy. When we give mercy, God grants us His mercy, whether people do or not. When we forgive the debts of others and don't make them “pay up,” God forgives us our debts. When we let go of anger and offense toward people who hurt us, God fills us with a peace that will make us wonder why we decided to fill ourselves with rage. The payback that we get is far more satisfying than anything we can take from another, be it in clothes or be it in emotional turmoil or anything else we subject people to to get even. God doesn't get even...He forgives...and pays the debt owed...and pulls the offending party to Himself if only they will come humbly.

And that, my friends, is too wonderful for us to fathom. And nearly impossible for us to imitate, but His Spirit lives in His people and if we heed it, peace can happen in small and large ways in a world bent on seeking peace through demanding it instead of living it.

Girded with rejoicing

The pastures of the wilderness drip;

And the hills gird themselves with rejoicing.

The meadows are clothed with flocks

And the valleys are covered (mantled NIV) with grain. Psalm 65:12-13 NASB

Ah, the blessings of the Lord...clothing the hillsides with sheep...the picture I see here in Iowa would be cattle grazing the in picked corn fields...the multiplying of the livestock...life abounding. The amber waves of grain cresting all over the land...we look to this time of year and see that God has blessed us with an abundant harvest. The pear and apple trees are putting out their abundance this year due to the late frosts of the past 2 years...all that pent up energy and desire to bear fruit that trees have, have managed to try to make up for the past to the point that the branches are breaking under the weight of the fruit that is overabundant. The hills are rejoicing with the site of all of the blessings of another year.

But this came after repentance and God forgiving their transgressions. There was a drawing near to God that happened to allow God to serve up these blessings.

Like the years of frost, there was little fruit, little harvest. There was damage done at just the wrong time. God had been unable to bless because iniquity and sin (conscious and unconscious error and wrongdoing) had abounded instead. But “You choose and bring near to you.” God forgave and drew near those who had ignored or rebelled against Him. He is a God that wants to bless, but so often we prevent Him from doing so. Be may experience drought of the soul, of life, of hope. But then we ask for forgiveness and He is so happy we come that He draws us near and throws a party of blessing. He clothes us with the fruit of His goodness. He dresses the fields, the hills, and the valleys – the high points and the low, with good things. Sometimes we see those blessings as things we deserve...sad creatures that we are...instead of as the result of God's desire to give us good things to reflect His generosity. And when He wants to show us that it is Him, His power, that He fills our branches or fishing nets to the point of breaking and tearing (see John!). The theme of feast or famine holds fairly true in our lives because that is how God gets our attention on both ends. The famine brings us to God in humility, and the blessing brings us to that point as well, knowing full well we do not deserve His blessing. “Normal” is where we are comfortable...where we feel like we have worked for what we have and think little of the God who provided both the blessing and the ability to work to earn it. The extremes of parched lands and souls and breaking branches of super-abundance both make our hearts yearn to know the God who is able to withhold or give freely. The unexpected causes us to fall to our knees in worship.

Deuteronomy 8:18 comes to mind. “But you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.”

I went through an entire month of not being able to use my right hand. For those of you who are right-handed, you understand that this would be more than just a little inconvenient. The fearful part was this: everything I do to earn money, or even serve my family, requires my right hand. I cut with rotary cutter and ruler, requiring 2 hands, sew, hold a book, wash dishes, cook, and work at the local quilt shop or retail store. Without 2 hands, I was worth very little. I could get some things done, essentials like getting a dinner cooked, laundry sorted and washed, but I couldn't cut bolts of fabric or use a box cutter and stock shelves. And I wasn't sure I would ever be able to again. That is a frightening place to be. But it was God who would give the power to make wealth. It was up to Him to determine what I would be able to do. I had to trust Him that if my quilting career was over that He had something else He wanted for my life to focus its time and attention on. Typing this would be possible, but to be truthful, I probably would not take the time to type one-handed, and therefore would not be doing this study in cloth. I consider it a blessing to have my hand back and to do the things I do. My stash has grown to the point of overabundance. He blesses my shopping with sales that enable me to bless others, as well as letting those pretty things bless my heart in the process. He puts people in my life to do the parts of the process better than I could so that I can fulfill the promise to get things made.

But most of all, He reminds me over and over that He is my abundance and provision forever. Nothing on earth can compare with Him. Feast or famine, He is my portion, my food and drink, my very survival. And when the sheep are on the hills, He shows us His generosity and love.

The many garments of Joseph...it wasn't all the Coat of Many Colors

The dichotomy of the cloak of favor – the story of Joseph and the technicolor dreamcoat.

 I really hate the musical...any dream will do is not the moral of the story...the dream isn't even the focus of the story...but I digress.

God's favor is a mysterious thing. Joseph had it from God and from his parents. It was expressed in a multicolored tunic made for him especially by his father Israel (Jacob), and from God by the dream that someday he would indeed rule over his family. One would think that both of these were good things. To have the favor of God and man would seem to us to be a happily-ever-after story. All would be well and go well for Joseph, right? WRONG! That garment caused his brothers to solidify their contempt for him, and the dream foretold the result, but not the process, of what God was going to do in his life. So favor does not equal ease, peace, and comfort. It is often the hard path to the top. Jesus had the favor of God and man, and that story also led to great suffering before the work of God was accomplished.

So Joseph has the garment of favor...and he is stripped of it by those who are jealous of him. He is thrown in the pit and sold into slavery, and the garment was dipped in blood and presented to his father as a symbol of his death. He was not really dead, but it was thought he was. The symbol of favor became the symbol of death in his father's eyes. Jacob jumped to conclusions, but he saw his son as dead. It was in reality a symbol of the hatred of the brothers...they wanted to kill him, but their greed got in the way of his actually dying. But like all of us, the blood of the death of a substitute needed to take place for the scriptures to be fulfilled. The death of something in Joseph's place, and in our place, needed to happen for the eventual cleansing of the sinners here on earth.

Jacob exchanged his garments for sackcloth, and the garment of favor became a curse in his heart.

The next garment Joseph had was given to him by his master in Egypt, and that one, too, was stripped away from him, this time by a woman of ill-repute, his boss's wife. He left that one in her hand as he fled temptation and ill-repute himself, only to have it also become an unjust witness against him. God would not let him keep the position of a slave. But was the position of a prisoner better? The downward spiral of Joseph's life must have left his head reeling! How could God's favor take him so low?

On to the jail, wearing jail-bird clothes. This was the first time it says he changed his own clothes, and that was so he could appear before Pharaoh himself! This was a small upgrade. He shaved and put on clothes that did not smell of jail. Once he told Pharaoh what God had in mind for the next 7 years, Pharaoh clothed him in fine garments and gold jewelry! Well, that was more like it, right? Joseph was ruler over Egypt under Pharaoh! But these were the work clothes to fulfill the promise of God's favor that continually followed him. Because once God put him there, all powerful and mighty as Joseph was, his heart had to sink when the brothers showed up in town looking for food. He used their cloth sacks to work repentance in their lives, to bring Benjamin to his presence, and to cause them to tear their own clothes in grief and mourning. And that is when the dream came true, when the favor of God allowed him to spread that favor to his brothers in the form of new garments to replace their garments of mourning and repentance, and bestow on Benjamin more garments of favor without them getting jealous this time of a brother better loved. They had stripped him, but he turned around and clothed them, showing them their brotherhood was eternal and their favor unmerited.

This story in cloth foreshadows the work of Christ in our lives. God shows us His favor, strips us of any pretension that we have earned it, takes us through a purging of our status, strength, power, and reputation, but He never takes that presence or favor away. Others can see it, and some respond to it rightly, some wrongly, and some are enticed by it the wrong way and we have to run. Once the purging is done, He continues with the plan of building us up, and seldom the way we think. He thought the cup bearer would get him out of jail, but that hope was dashed. It took God planting something in Pharaoh's life that would not only get Joseph out of jail, but make him useful in God's hands for bringing the rest of the chosen back into a right relationship with him and with God.

If you are in the process of being stripped, don't lose heart. God's favor has not been lifted. His plan is mysteriously different than ours. What appears to us to be for our harm is often for not only our good, but for the good of those we love the most as well. Waiting for God to show us the end of the story, that is our job...to be faithful, useful, and hopeful in the face of searing pain and loss, while God still shapes our destiny. Accepting that is often hard, but cooperating with it will bring blessing in the end. Be the one God is stripping and not the strippers of jealousy, wrath, and anger, or lust and evil desires. Let God humble you so that He can raise you up. Joseph couldn't crawl out of the pit, free himself from slavery, or break out of the jail cell. God had to release him from each of those situations, and each seemed worse than the one before. But God never left Joseph, and Joseph never fought the Spirit of God, but worked faithfully to become one who could end up saving not only himself, but millions. Take heart and accept whatever garment He has you in today, for tomorrow's garments will change, and all garments He dresses you in and strips you of fulfill the role you play in the great story of God's work in the lives of those on whom His favor rests.

Tight belts

No one is weary or stumbles, None slumbers or sleeps; Nor is the belt at its waist undone, Nor its sandal strap broken. Isaiah 5:26

This looks like a blessing, right? This is a case of Don't Take Scripture Out Of Context!

Who will not be weary or undo their belt? The enemy that God sends to destroy the wicked. And the wicked were His own people. They were those who taunted God, wondering if He had any power or might, any justice or goodness.

And above all, those who “Call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe, and take away the rights of those who are in the right! (vs. 20-23)

I was a niave child. I believed everything and everyone. But there were a few things I had a hard time with...like thinking that anyone could possibly believe that bad things were good. I remember thinking even in my adult life that there was no way a civilization like ours could call good evil and evil good. Unfortunately, I have lived to see that day. Abortion is good and those who oppose it are evil. Homosexuality is good and those who think it perverted are evil. Marriage in many ways is considered evil and living together is good. Church people are evil and narrow-minded, and those who give out condoms and bad psychological advise like follow your own heart are good. We try to have it both ways...we want to do our own will and then panic as a culture when the consequences of it come home to roost, like kids living in poverty because their birth parents are irresponsible, unmarried, and committed only to their own happiness, which they will never find because they don't realize that it is found in God, His design for the family, and in hard work and self-sacrifice.

The belt of the tormentor will not be loosed. The sandal straps will always be tightly tied. It is amazing that Satan tempts us into this sort of sin, and then runs after us, tormenting us with its consequences and guilt. He never quits chasing us, stabbing us, running us from town to town with no refuge to be found. It is a sad, endless deal we have here on the earth, especially when we choose to live this way instead of bowing to God, accepting the beauty, tho in a fallen state here, of His design. We will never have it perfect here on earth, but we will have God's favor and presence, and that will make life worth the living. We won't be chased by the enemy when God is our shield. He will defend us when we hide in Him, and not from Him.

So this is not a pretty scene...we see over and over the imagery of the enemy chasing us to and fro, shooting arrows and making war against us because of our sin...and God letting this happen. Is there no hope for the human race? Is there no peace to be had? There is no mistake that chapter 5 is one of the most dismal of all of scripture.

But then there is Chapter 6! One of my favorites. We will study it further soon, but suffice it to say, Isaiah is chased right into the throne room of God Himself! And he confesses his own sin and the sin of his people, and God took away his iniquity and forgave his sin. If Satan can chase us, let it be to the throne of God, where forgiveness and mercy are available now to those who come to him seeing their sin for what it is, and their mouths confess God's holiness and their own desperate condition. For now, that is what the throne of God offers to those who approach it (Hebrews 4), but some day, those will be brought to it who refused to come in repentance. They will not find mercy, but judgment. Satan himself will stand there condemned, and those who followed him here, or are chased by him here, will follow him into the pit. There will never be an end to the consequences of his evil or theirs. Those who follow him willingly on earth will follow him unwillingly to hell. It's a hard pill to swallow, for we all want to see forgiveness and mercy doled out to the sinner. Be not deceived...God wants that, too. Satan has people convinced that God will change His mind later about the whole judgment thing and keeps them from repenting now and turning to God for His mercy WHILE IT MAY BE FOUND, which is TODAY! Hebrews speaks of people refusing to enter HIS REST. We enter the fortress where the enemy can no longer harass us. Satan chases us all around, trying to block the site of that safe place for our souls, keeping people from seeing the One who will cleanse and forgive and show us how to have rest, clean conscience, and hope.

People, if you are being chased, run to the One who will show you mercy instead of chasing you relentlessly, who will clean your sin and shelter you instead of running from one sin to another to try to find a way out of your misery.

Turn to Jesus. Enter the throne room and let Him do the cleaning that we cannot do on our own.

Shopping for replacement clothes!

Shopping

We love it here in America...shopping! It has become a spectator sport. One does not shop alone...one takes a buddy and you look together, try on pieces and ensembles, and walk the runway of the dressing room for evaluation by said buddy as to the fit, style, and appropriateness for the occasion. It is not that we have nothing else to wear, but we have to change out our clothes once in a while. We assess our wardrobe and determine that certain things have worn out and are no longer appropriate for general use.

Of old You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, and your years will not come to an end. Psalm 102:25-27

New heaven and new earth...that is what is needed. The old earth, we understand, needs to be traded out for a new one. We see the mold, mildew, rot and decay. We see death, dying (which can be worse than death sometimes), lying, cheating, and stealing. We understand that this is not how life was meant to be lived. God sees that and promises that He will again create a new earth that will reflect His glory eternally. Satan will never set foot (or scale) there to lead us to question God's goodness and protection in our lives. He will never let Satan set foot (or wing) in heaven to challenge God's favor for people on earth (like Job). It will be perfect.

Now, you may wonder why He can't or won't just clean up the heaven and earth that are there now. Can't He just wave a magic wand and make these places better? Let me ask you...don't garments wear out to the point that they cannot serve their purpose? Why do we replace them and what do we replace them with? Do we not look for something better, newer, more stylish, more fitting to our constantly changing figures? My shape is not what it was 20 years ago, let alone 4000 years ago, like the earth. There will be no more sea in heaven...for some reason the only water we read of is the river of life flowing from under the throne. Things will be different because the need for them is over. Jesus fulfilled the prophecies and symbolism has been used. I do not wear my wedding dress any more. I am married and to wear it again is really not acceptable. People would think I was crazy. It was designed for a specific occasion for a specific purpose. Once it was fulfilled, it became something to see in pictures, and to look at with fond memories (and marvel that I was once that small). But it is no longer necessary. It could be thrown out and not really matter. But it has been changed for clothing that was needed as the result of that occasion, like maternity clothes, which again, serve their purpose for a short time. There are times when the clothes just wear out. They are worn to death, to the point where the stresses of life take their toll. They are replaced with something that will allow us to continue to do the stuff of life.

So why settle for the things of this earth and of the heavens above when God knows that even though they were VERY GOOD, they were not all that there could be, and He knew that from the beginning. He refers to the coming heaven and earth from the beginning! He knew the wear and tear we would place on this world and that it would forever mar the glory it was supposed to reflect. I have seen over the past few weeks that places where tragic things happen are destroyed. They tore down the house in Cleveland where the man held girls captive for years and years, schools where children were killed are being replaced with new schools. The twin towers area have become a memorial, not new buildings. We have terrible memories associated with the old thing, and the sin is so vile that we cannot let it exist. On this earth Christ was murdered, death took hold of almost every human, and tragedy takes place daily in lives across the globe. If we really looked at the horror of it, we would want it replaced. There are indeed some gorgeous places here on planet earth, but even they are touched by death and sin. So lets rejoice that we will not have terrible memories in heaven. We will not accidentally run across the place where we failed a test, fought with a spouse or child, or visited the funeral home or death bed. Those things will be totally and completely gone.

But God will never change. He never needs to be replaced with a new God. And when we try to, we suffer for it. He is, and He will always be. He knows what we are, what we need, and what we will enjoy forever...His presence, His love, His mercy, and His redemption. We are adopted, moved into the new home that will be the new earth as His children. We don't want to stay in the orphanage when the palace awaits! So bring on the replacements! And we don't even have to try them on for size and seek the approval of others. It will be a perfect fit and always appropriate for the occasion.