It is simple.
Made out of silver starred garlin tied into a circle and embellished with long ribbons where the garlin ends meet. It’s a make-shift crown if you will. One I picture a little girl weaing as she plays dress-up like the picture above (but happy).
When my eyes spotted these “crowns” at the women’s retreat I was attending, I had the most awful thought. “They’re not going to make us wear those!” I think my eyes probably rolled when I thought it. My 45 year old brain took over as I considered these crowns utterly ridiculous.
We were “real grown up” that day and civilized until the pastor (who is a woman) had us stand up and sing “Pharoah-Pharoah”. It involves actions and pelvis thrusting and grunting. A favorite song of all youth groups in America even when I was a youth leader. Maybe that song drew me and all of us out of our adult facade. There’s just something about doing “the Egyptian” that breaks down all stuffiness in the room. Whatever it was…
It happened.
After our silly moment, the pastor began to prepare our hearts for communion. She read the liturgy and then a woman began to sing as we went to the front to receive the body and blood of Jesus. Her single female voice made the lyrics especially poignant to our softening hearts.
You might be the wife,
Waiting up at night
You might be the man,
Struggling to provide
Feeling like it’s hopeless
Maybe you’re the son,
Who chose a broken road
Maybe you’re the girl,
Thinking you’ll end up alone
Praying God can you hear me?
Oh God are you listening?
(Chorus)
Am I more than flesh and bone?
Am I really something beautiful?
Yeah, I wanna believe, I wanna believe that
I’m not just some wandering soul
That you don’t see and you don’t know
Yeah I wanna believe, Jesus help me believe that I
Am someone worth dying for
I know you’ve heard the truth that God has set you free
But you think you’re the one that grace could never reach
So you just keep asking, what everybody’s asking
Chorus
You’re worth it, you can’t earn it
Yeah the Cross has proven
That you’re sacred and blameless
Your life has purpose
You are more than flesh and bone
Can’t you see you’re something beautiful
Yeah you gotta believe, you gotta believe
He wants you to see, He wants you to see
That you’re not just some wandering soul
That can’t be seen and can’t be known
Yeah you gotta believe, you gotta believe that you
Are someone worth dying for
You’re someone worth dying for
You’re someone worth dying for.
(Mikes Chair) Click on link to hear the song.
As we walked back to our seats, our tinsel crown was placed on our heads. We were “daughters of the King.”
I don’t know if it was the song, the crown, or the beauty of adult women willing to play dress-up for awhile and become little girls again. But my heart was touched, and I was so thankful to let my adult guard down for a minute and just receive the truth that He loves me.
Life is hard. The older I get, the harder it gets. But there is a little girl still inside me who needs to breathe once in awhile. How about you? Maybe we need to stop taking everything so seriously and play “dress-up”. Go to the park and swing. Go down the slide. Do ballet in your kitchen. Whatever your body will let you do.
He died for us to be His daughters. Daughters of the King. I pray for us to know this down deep. I think it helps to have a dress-rehearsal on earth first. Make yourself a crown. And wear it.
Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’ When He had placed His hands on them, He went on from there. (Matthew 19:14)
Won’t you let Him lay His hands on you today?
Much love,
andy
