The Wedding Dress....Worthless or Priceless?

The story starts many years prior and only one of the ladies gathered at the meeting knew the story, at least in part, of the wedding dress before us that hung limply from the ceiling. With tears in her eyes, she listened as the portion of the story fresh from Saturday was recited, by her friend, and the Bible Study leader.

The church had a garage sale on Saturday, to raise funds for a missions project in Guatemala. The Pastor has asked for good, usable products to be donated for the cause. One of the ladies, aforementioned, had a new wedding dress that had been in her possession for a number of years hanging in her closet. She brought it to the sale with the instruction of 'get what you think it is worth'. Deb, one of the organizers, and the leader of our study, took the dress and noticed the $699.99 price tag dangling from under the arm area. "What is this dress worth?" was the question that burned in her mind, "What is the value that needs to be placed on the dress?" She placed a sign of "$100.00 Never Been Worn" on the wedding dress and hung it proudly up for all to see. As the sale went on, a 13- year old girl asked her father to purchase it for her. Upon inspection there was a small amount of dirt from perhaps trying the dress on, or just time in the closet, over the years. The man said "The only way I will take the dress is if the two zero's were removed" The dress had now been de-valued all the way to a $1.00.  Deb stood resolved, "No, she could not let that beautiful dress go for a dollar". Due to the discovery of the small amount of dirt on the dress, another lady there scratched off the "Never Been Worn" and waited to see if there would be a reasonable offer for the dress-- but by the end of the days sale, the beautiful white wedding dress still hung in its original spot. Deb brought the dress lovingly home, and placed it in her house. The question plagued her "What is the value of the dress?" and that is what brings us to today.

A small group ladies from the study gathered at Deb's house to read Chapter 7 of the summers Bible Study, of 'Chosen & Cherished', a book we had been studying about the tradition of the Jewish wedding and the intimate intertwining of God's love for His bride. How appropriate to see the wedding garment hanging from the ceiling, but we all wanted to know why, and who did it belong to? The other leader of the study, with tears in her eyes, would only reveal that it belonged to a girl who had been many times abused, first by her father then by other men and had a few years ago purchased the dress to get married, then ran off and aborted the unborn child she was carrying. When the past of the dress was revealed, another opinion came in that it would be deception to sell the dress without revealing the past that the dress held.

We all sat speechless around the gown, feeling the weight of the pain this girl would have gone through. The joy of picking out the dress, the hopes she would have had as she twirled around in the lightweight taffeta and chiffon, looking at herself from every angle. The pearls and the detail showed she, with great care, chose a beautiful wedding dress for herself, obviously with desires for a wonderful new start. The story stops there, as far as the details of the girl, her dress and her future, as we know it--but it was where we all stopped to value the dress from our point of view.

The dress was just material valued by some down to a dollar. The real value was the heartbeat behind the dress--the girl. Why did this dress come to us at this time, such an appropriate time as we were studying the tradition of the wedding garment and the depth of what it really means. The dress had some wear, some dirt just from time--but isn't that like us all. We start out fresh and filled with dreams, and over time we get worn down, abused, and people value us by what they see on the outside--the smudges and the cracks. We soon have a de-valued price of our worth and even feel we are being "deceptive" as we try to cover the pain of our past to others.

After listening, talking and deciding among the group we found the value of the dress not the important factor, but the value behind the dress.......priceless, because it served as a reminder that there are people (including this girl--name withheld) that we can do the most valuable thing for--pray. No one is too far God's grip, too past His love and forgiveness. He can take His original creation and remove the soil and stain this world has left and make something beautiful and unique.

Don't let people put a value on your worth--because to God who created you.........you are priceless.

Half way thru January.....

Well, life has been very relaxing in January thus far. The snow was gentle and pleasant this year, not the overload we had last year, lasting from November to April. We hope to get a number of jobs done this year on the house....the roof, the siding replaced with Hardie Board...in addition to finishing the right side of our fence, making my Rose Garden a very safe place indeed from our night time visitors. So far we have had numerous deer, a flock of turkeys and a very persistent female elk that view our back yard as their home. Fortuneatly it is in the far back, away from my precious roses!

I am looking forward to 2010...praying for the best and hoping for Peace.......