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Cal's Pastoral Epistles
"God Loves You For Who You Are"
July 21, 2010
I was mortified. Standing in the center of a crowded subway train bound
for midtown Manhattan my daughter leans over and says to me, “Did you
know that your shirt is inside out?” I looked down and saw the stitching on
the little insignia over the pocket. I grabbed the collar on the polo shirt and it
appeared fine but as I turned my head I noticed the seam over my shoulder
was sticking out and it confirmed that she was telling me the truth.
I felt like a fool. I had dressed quickly that morning. I pulled the shirt out
of my travel bag without even looking and we were out of my daughter’s
apartment in a flash. As I stood on the subway train I imagined that
everyone was looking at me. I immediately put my head down because I
wanted to disappear. I guess that only works for Harry Potter when he
dons the cloak of invisibility. When I looked up, the people were still there.
Then I noticed that no one around me seemed to be paying any attention
to me. To my right was a red headed young lady who was completely
engrossed in the book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. On my left was a
Latino boy with a Yankee hat. He had on an oversized T-shirt with the name
of some band across the front. He had his eyes closed and was grooving to
the music streaming from his I-pod. An elderly lady was standing across
from me and she was looking up while tightly clutching her handbag. It
seemed that I was the only person on that train looking at anyone else.
We left the subway and I realized that there wasn’t going to be a good
place for me to take off my shirt and put it on the right way. So I
reconciled myself to the fact that I was going to have to live with it. Then I
saw something that really hit me as funny. Coming straight at me was a
perfectly dressed African American man in his forties sucking on a pacifier.
I had to do a double take. While I was trying to come up with a reason for
this bizarre behavior, I came face to face with a young woman in a flowing
dress who was covered in tattoos.
Interestingly enough, my concerns over what people might think about
my shirt vanished. As I continued on I saw lots of things that made me
chuckle and caused me to realize that although we were created in the
image of God, God left a lot of room for creativity in our individual design.
Each of us is different. Whether we are intentional in our actions or we
inadvertently slip up there is room for us to be who we are in God’s
kingdom.
I was reminded of a song I learned as a child,
“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and
yellow black and white, They are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little
children of the world.”
We are all imperfect. We have our flaws. We follow our own beat. Yet
God loves us and is always ready to embrace us when we come back to
him. Purple hair, lip rings, polyester suits, wall street financiers, homeless
veterans, jogging teens, street vendors are precious in his sight.
You see it isn’t what we wear or even what we do that matters to God.
It is the state of our heart. When we come to him and invite him into our
lives, God embraces us. He forgives our past and He helps us find a way to
glorify him in our own unique way.
So celebrate! Don’t worry about what others think. Just give the glory to
God and praise him with everything you do.
God bless. See you in church. Cal
July 21, 2010
I was mortified. Standing in the center of a crowded subway train bound
for midtown Manhattan my daughter leans over and says to me, “Did you
know that your shirt is inside out?” I looked down and saw the stitching on
the little insignia over the pocket. I grabbed the collar on the polo shirt and it
appeared fine but as I turned my head I noticed the seam over my shoulder
was sticking out and it confirmed that she was telling me the truth.
I felt like a fool. I had dressed quickly that morning. I pulled the shirt out
of my travel bag without even looking and we were out of my daughter’s
apartment in a flash. As I stood on the subway train I imagined that
everyone was looking at me. I immediately put my head down because I
wanted to disappear. I guess that only works for Harry Potter when he
dons the cloak of invisibility. When I looked up, the people were still there.
Then I noticed that no one around me seemed to be paying any attention
to me. To my right was a red headed young lady who was completely
engrossed in the book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. On my left was a
Latino boy with a Yankee hat. He had on an oversized T-shirt with the name
of some band across the front. He had his eyes closed and was grooving to
the music streaming from his I-pod. An elderly lady was standing across
from me and she was looking up while tightly clutching her handbag. It
seemed that I was the only person on that train looking at anyone else.
We left the subway and I realized that there wasn’t going to be a good
place for me to take off my shirt and put it on the right way. So I
reconciled myself to the fact that I was going to have to live with it. Then I
saw something that really hit me as funny. Coming straight at me was a
perfectly dressed African American man in his forties sucking on a pacifier.
I had to do a double take. While I was trying to come up with a reason for
this bizarre behavior, I came face to face with a young woman in a flowing
dress who was covered in tattoos.
Interestingly enough, my concerns over what people might think about
my shirt vanished. As I continued on I saw lots of things that made me
chuckle and caused me to realize that although we were created in the
image of God, God left a lot of room for creativity in our individual design.
Each of us is different. Whether we are intentional in our actions or we
inadvertently slip up there is room for us to be who we are in God’s
kingdom.
I was reminded of a song I learned as a child,
“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and
yellow black and white, They are precious in his sight. Jesus loves the little
children of the world.”
We are all imperfect. We have our flaws. We follow our own beat. Yet
God loves us and is always ready to embrace us when we come back to
him. Purple hair, lip rings, polyester suits, wall street financiers, homeless
veterans, jogging teens, street vendors are precious in his sight.
You see it isn’t what we wear or even what we do that matters to God.
It is the state of our heart. When we come to him and invite him into our
lives, God embraces us. He forgives our past and He helps us find a way to
glorify him in our own unique way.
So celebrate! Don’t worry about what others think. Just give the glory to
God and praise him with everything you do.
God bless. See you in church. Cal
Pastor Cal Lord writes these weekly epistles to
help us see God in every day things.
help us see God in every day things.
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