The Wedding Dress

Threatening rain, 90 km/hr winds and the single digit temperature changed the venue of the outdoor wedding to inside. Rearranging tables, the reception hall was quickly turned into the wedding chapel. Jessica and Nathan were getting married.
The groomsmen looked dashing in their black suits. The ladies gave the wedding an air of sophistication, but the belle of the day, Jessica, looked absolutely stunning in in her white bridal dress and veil.
The wedding dress, a major expense, is only tried on for fittings before the wedding. After the ceremony, it is dry-cleaned and packed away as a wonderful memory of the vows that were made.
Imagine you are the recipient of an expensive heirloom wedding dress. It has been preserved well and is spotless. The plan is for you to wear it for your wedding sometime in the future.
Boxed up, you have difficulty imagining what the dress is like. With no prospective groom in the offing, you want to see your inheritance now not wait until THE DAY. You take the exquisite gown out of its protective wrapping. The beauty of the dress and suppleness of the fabric invokes dreams of walking down the center of the church with everybody admiring you in your wedding attire. You cannot resist trying it on. Standing in front of the mirror you feel like a queen in her royal robes.
The dress is comfortable and fits like a dream. You do not want to take it off. You dance around the house until lunch time. You eat a hamburger with all the fixings. Ketchup and mustard ooze out of the burger and land on the front of the dress. You try wiping it off with your hands smearing the stain even more. Sleepily, you decide to take a nap after lunch wrinkling your dress beyond repair. Upon waking, you use a black sharpie to write out your grocery list and the fresh ink smudges all over the sleeves. On your way to the store, the engine light comes on. When you open the hood, oil is spurting out of the engine block. You jump back trying to avoid the oil but you trip and land in fresh tar and gooey mud. While trying to stand you tear a hole in your dress.
On arriving home, you are convinced you can clean up the dress. You put it in the washing-machine with bleach to eradicate the stains. After several hours, you engage the wash cycle with detergent and piping hot water in hopes the dress will come out like new.
It does not! In total frustration you crumple up the garment and throw in the back of your closet. Your reasoning, “At least I am not getting married any time soon.”
Several years pass, and Prince Charming arrives. After a meaningful courtship, he proposes and you set a date for your wedding. That night, you spot the soiled, crumpled garment that was to be for your wedding dress.
The next day, you confess your dilemma to your future husband. With tears of regret, you pull from the bottom of the closet the dress that was your inheritance. The anguish and tears are unbearable. Your fiance pulls you into his arms, affirms his love, asks if you would give him the disfigured gown, and trust his love. You oblige the request but wonder how he could ever fix such a horrible mess.
The dress arrives, is nicer than the original gown and is in perfect condition. The groom has paid the full bridal price so that you could look and feel beautiful on the day he marries you. You are awestruck by his love and this time you treasure the gift and keep it in honour until the wedding day.

We all have been given an unblemished inheritance. With misuse, disobedience, arrogance and neglect we have damaged our lives, our wedding clothes. Stained, torn and wrinkled, we are ashamed of what we have become in our lives. Jesus asks us to give him our rags of rebellion, disrespect, unfaithfulness and selfishness and replaces them with a robe of righteousness.
We have all ruined our wedding garment but Jesus is willing to give you a brand new look. It means trusting His heart and receiving God’s forgiveness.