Already Wearing Princess Clothes

The cheap clothing store was large, and my enemy stood at my side, convincingly unrelenting. His immense hatred for me hid behind a hideous, roguish laugh. "This one fits you perfectly," he jeered, as he pulled a gaudy, space-alien-green outfit from off its hanger. Across the back I could see the words emblazoned in an orange the color of traffic cones: "PANIC". My heart froze and skipped a beat and then started up again in a frenzy. What did I know but that it actually did fit me perfectly. I resisted the urge to scream, partly from frustration and desperation, partly from the terror of realizing my enemy was actually on the side of truth. I watched reluctantly as he put the gaudy fabric into my cart.

A few paces down the aisle, my enemy stopped again. I tried not to look and simply mind my own business, however his guffaw made me turn my head involuntarily. A hideous black coat was in his hands this time. "What do you think of this?" He asked. Compelled to reply, I stated, "Awful. Simply awful and ugly." "I know, isn't it." He agreed, in a hatefully amiable fashion. "It's a pity that it matches your personality so well. You deserve to wear this one every day! It would be showing your true 'colors', you know. Like you always want to do." The very aura of the coat emanated Depression, so there was little need for the way that word was pasted across the chest like suffocation. It went into my cart as well.

...Along with a corset called "Fear of Man", and a shawl called "Shame"...

This is the spot my husband found me in recently. No, not in a thrift store with someone hounding my shopping, but when he painted the above picture for me I knew that's exactly how it felt. I was out "clothing shopping" when I already had a wardrobe of finery that outshone any thrifted garments I could hope to find.

I was coming away from experiences of the day wearing hideous outfits that suffocated me, made me ashamed, made me despair. How did they get on?? I wondered. How did I get conned into this?

It all started with an agreement with a Liar.

It all started with going into enemy territory

It all started with blindness to the completeness and beauty of what I already had to wear and who I really am.

"You gotta leave the store!" My husband said imploringly. "You can't afford to even agree with your enemy on one thing for one second! You're already wearing princess clothes! You already have on the gown of Love and the robe of perfect Righteousness! You're already beautiful!"

"It FEELS like the other suggested clothes actually fit me, like they are the wardrobe that is the most natural," I replied hesitatingly, wanting to believe the beauty of his words.

But it's a lie. It's an optical illusion, that panic or depression, fear of man or shame are a perfect fit for me. It's not seeing who I really am. It's agreeing with a feeling, a half truth, a deception, a Liar.

I am beautifully clothed. I am loved. I am righteous. I am a daughter, not an alien foreigner. I belong to God. I belong. I'm not naked; He's got me covered. He's longing for me to agree with Him! It's simple...I can agree with the Liar or with the Truth about who Jesus Christ has made me to be. My new self, the gift God gave me through Christ, is clothed and in her right mind!

Come on, let's get out of the "clothing store". I'm heading for the palace, the King's home, where I belong.