All Dressed Up

Izzy is 94 years old! Izzy is a hoot with a quick wit, contagious laugh and the best sense of humor. Izzy is also in the hospital. I stood in the doorway to her hospital room and saw her sitting down with Nurse Amanda attending to her. I shouted her name followed by shouting my own name as a way of introduction. Izzy looked at Nurse Amanda quizzically, “Who’s at the door?” Nurse Amanda shouted from eighteen inches away – “It’s David Dendy!” Picture big smile floating across Izzy’s face with an affirmative nod of the head. Nurse Amanda, wearing a thin, gauzy, yellow isolation gown along with bright blue latex gloves, pointed at herself and said, “You’re going to have to get dressed…” (Interpretation – “Put on a gown and blue latex gloves like me…”) I quickly shouted back at Nurse Amanda – “But Izzy likes to see me undressed!” Izzy’s uproarious laugh could be heard through the whole South Wing of the hospital. SeeingGodatWorkEveryDay… We live in a world where it is quite easy and readily acceptable to get physically undressed. A few quick keystrokes from any computer, smartphone or tablet and you can be inundated with photos of men and women “undressed.” What we don’t find so readily are men and women who are willing to undress themselves emotionally and spiritually. We love to “cover up.” We are more than happy to put on layer after layer after layer of “clothing” which keeps others from seeing our true selves. Surely, if someone saw me “undressed” the finger pointing, the ridicule, the rejection would be too great to bear. In turnabout is fair play, we prefer to see others fully dressed to the nines. What would we do if we saw each other “undressed.” In the post resurrection story found in John 21, just a couple of weeks removed from Peter’s threefold denial of being a disciple of Jesus, Peter is futilely fishing in his boat, in his bathing suit. From one hundred yards out, Jesus tells Peter to put the net over on the right side of the boat. The haul of fish is great! Peter is told, “It is the Lord.” Listen to what happens next, “When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.” When we jump off boats into the water, we typically get “undressed.” Instead, Peter in his shame and sin gets dressed… covers up. I love what the author of the Book of Hebrews states, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4: 16) In our time of need (which is often), the love, the grace and the mercy we receive from Jesus invites us, not to get dressed, but rather to get undressed. Are you tired of getting all dressed up? Me too… SeeingGodatWorkEveryDay… Laugh often and Fear not! David! daviddendy@daviddendy.com