Naked #3

And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account (Hebrews 4:13).

I just read the autobiography of Bear Grylls, and among his escapades were several incidents of running around naked, or skinny dipping, or playing strip poker. I wondered about the propriety of mentioning that in the current of young minds avidly reading how this mega-man grew up. But frankly, isn’t that the way we were created in the first place?  Hiding nothing?  Naked we arrived and naked we will leave?

20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong (Job 1:20-22).

I’ve always wondered why Jews, in moments of distress, tore their clothes. As far as I know the Lord has never commented on that. Isn’t He thrifty? Doesn’t He care about the clothes we wear? I know for a fact that He does, but not in the prudish way we’ve been taught!

As a young Christian in a middle aged body, my days of nudity were over, however, I discovered that how I dressed was of great interest to my Lord. One Sunday morning, I went to my closet to choose one of my black church-going outfits when the Lord spoke up. “May I choose your outfit today?” Of course I said “Yes.”
We went about this by my pulling out something hanging on a hanger and Him shaking His head, not that I saw this, but I knew in my knower that His head said no. So I’d pull out another hanger. By the time I had put on all the items to which His head said “Yes” I was wearing more colors than I could count and not one thing was black.

You must consider that my church was a staid, old-fashioned, Lutheran church, where many women still wore their hair in buns. There was much whispering and rustling of cloth as people twisted and turned to get a good look at my outfit. But that didn’t bother me because the pleasure of the Lord made me feel like dancing. In fact, that was the first Sunday that I ever did dance in church! In the Spirit!