Prada, Gucci and cute shoes galore, oh my!

WE are a new creation in Christ, we are forgiven. We are a new creation.
I so often put on the old clothes, the old self. I forget that God has made me a new creation.


We are Cinderella, we have been given clean, beautiful new clothes, our rags have been thrown away. So why would we ever decide to put them back on. Imagine her, as the princess, trying to get dressed for a ball. She walks into a  closet  that is as big as a two bedroom apartment. She walks in and sees an entire room filled wall to wall with shoes, of every kind and every color. Shiny, beautiful new, never worn shoes. She has every shoe she could ever need but she walks out and goes into the other room, with a look of disappointment on her face. The other room hold her dresses. Elegant and beath taking dresses. With no end in sight  you walk the rack of them, you just see bows, ribbons, bright vivid colors and every fabric and pattern one could ever imagine or dream of. It is like a bridal store, with dresses hanging that have intricate bead work that could only have been done by the most fabulous of designers, who have taken the time to design these hundreds of dresses for her. Imagine that she walks the racks of these dresses and comes to the end of the fancy, silk covered hangers that hang all her delicately hung dresses, and she reaches out, out beyond the dresses that are there for her and reaches toward the very last item in her closet. She grabs a bent, rusty, wire hanger, with what looks like a piece of fabric folded over it. Upon closer examination you see that it use to be white but is now a brownish yellow stained color. There are loose strings hanging from it and all the edges are frayed. What looks to be an old piece of lace trim is hanging down from the front of it. Whatever it is she is reaching for stands out in this room of beautiful clothing, because it obviously not new, or nice. She takes the garment with her to the mirrors and proceeds to put it on. Two scrappy looking pieces of fabric are tired around her neck, and then she ties two more around her waist. She stands in the mirror thinking how beautiful she looks. Only to suddenly stop and look around. she looks at the rusty wire hanger now on the floor, at the two rooms behind her and then back at the mirror. Imagine her, in her crown, standing in the mirror, looking at herself wearing  the tattered and worn apron she has just put on herself. The apron she used to wear before she was a princess. The apron that made her Cinderella, the stepdaughter no one loved, the one she cleaned and cooked and took care of everyone in. The apron that is the very symbol of the life she once had, of the person she used to be.

If we have a closet full of clothes that we can adorn ourselves in: grace, love, mercy, purity, holiness, and admiration. Why would we ever reach into our closet and pull out the things that were used to break us. The things we prayed for and God has forgiven, the things of our past that need to be thrown away. Maybe it is an old boyfriend that you just can't let go of so you text him, when you know you shouldn't. or the diet pills and fad diets you just have to have and do, because you just don't think you are beautiful without them. Maybe you are afraid of the future, so you run to the past seeking old friends and habitats that at one point made you feel ok. There are a thousand and one things that God has freed us and delivered us from, and the possibilities could be endless. We are all unique in the areas that God has healed us. What is not unique however is the fact that when we accepted Christ, He made us a new Creation. He found us, put a glass slipper on our foot and carried us away to a beautiful castle, where he made us a princess. If it is absurd to think of Kate Middleton standing in Buckingham palace, wearing tattered clothes and shoes with holes, why do we as the heirs of God, dress like he has out us out into the cold, with no money and only one pair or shoes.
God is so much better then an earthly or fairytale prince charming. He is the upmost and has never ending power. He is the creator of the world around us and He is the only one who has the power to change the things within us. So I challenge you, before you reach for the tattered apron hanging in the back of your mind, remind yourself, that you are no longer the old person you used to be. You are beautiful, you are patient, you are kind, You are healed you are redeemed, and you are forgiven. Reach out and allow God to cover you in His mercy and grace. He will give you everything you could ever need to make it through whatever it is you are going through, or whatever it is you need to be the person you want to be, and more. when Jesus died on the cross, he didn't just take our sin, He covered us in His Holiness. God doesn't see us as who we once were, He sees us how He saw Jesus, perfect. You are perfect when you cloth yourself in the garments that God is providing. No cash, credit, or ridiculous hoops jumped through required. He does and gives it to you like the prince in Cinderella did for her, out of Love.