Today - a story!
Maria had just found the perfect dress at the new consignment
store in town. It was more like a gown than a mere dress, but it was the
perfect shade of blue and fit like a glove. She giggled with glee as she looked
at herself in the mirror.
She had moved to town little more than a year ago and quickly
fell in love with the enchantment that filled the views from Main Street. Everything
from the architecture of the old homes to the manicured lawns made her feel
like she’d moved to the set of a cozy old movie. Everyone seemed friendly and
welcoming.
Being forced to move from her old place a thousand miles
away, she felt like her life was over. But here she could reinvent herself.
“Could life here really be this perfect?” she asked herself
every morning as the sun came through her bedroom window.
But she was challenged to become an accepted member of her
new community within the first few months of living there in paradise.
When the posters went up inviting the whole town to the annual
“Blue Dress Ball” she knew it would be the perfect opportunity to show these
folks what she was made of and how creative she could be when helping
out. Staring at the poster, she imagined designing decorations and showing off
her charcuterie board magic to pitch in with the catering.
The first day the planning committee met, she found herself
sitting in the middle of a room filled with women who already knew their role;
women who made it clear that they had things all wrapped up before she even
moved to town. The meeting was just a social event that aimed to bring grand
attention to the ones who always made it a huge sensation.
Saddened, but not defeated, Maria eased into the idea of
attending without being taxed by securing party perfection. What a novel idea.
In her old town she was the one who pulled everything together, constantly
overwhelmed and exhausted after each community event.
“This might be a good thing,” she mused to herself with a
chuckle, knowing she’d soon become frustrated with the notion of not being
needed.
She did her best to be available should someone ask for her
help with something, but when the big day dawned, it turned out that she wasn’t
needed at all.
“I’ll just enjoy myself and get to know everyone,” she concluded.
Entering the park that surrounded the town center pavilion,
she marveled at the lights and decorations the women had contrived. It was
truly beautiful. Half the town was already there by the time she waltzed up
front smiling from ear to ear, ready to introduce herself to everyone she hadn’t
yet met.
Before perusing the heavenly smelling delicacies on the
beautifully adorned tables and before the music swept her off her feet, she
realized that no one was smiling back at her. As a matter of fact, they all
seemed to be scowling at her.
One pretty teenager sashayed past her and spoke quite loudly,
to be heard over the music and to make sure she embarrassed the newcomer. She
said, “It’s called the Blue Dress Ball” for a reason, ma’am.”
She tossed her curls over her shoulder and joined arms with
her friends without missing a beat. They all laughed at her like she was a freak.
“My dress has blue on it!” she insisted to herself, trying to
keep the smile from falling off her face.
Her short dress was white with small blue flowers coming up from the
hem. As she peered around at all the other women,
she saw them lower their faces and shake their heads.
She quickly made her exit and ran home.
Sitting at her table in tears she promised she’d never speak
to a single woman in this mean-spirited little town.
Then, no. She realized that wasn’t true. She’d have to speak
to them. She lived there now. “What happened to the enchantment?” she whimpered.
She changed into her pajamas and slid into bed early, forcing her
thoughts to avoid her feelings of humiliation.
Facing the townsfolk in the following days proved easier than
she’d thought and before long, she began to feel like maybe she did belong
there after all, noting that NEXT year, her dress for the ball would be
completely blue.
Now she stared at the beautiful blue dress she’d found and
bought before anyone else had a chance to snatch it up.
By the time the posters went up publicizing the ball this
year, she was ready. She’d dropped her dress at the cleaners to make sure it
was clean and pressed before the big night.
No, she didn’t get to help much this year either, but she
pushed her way in where she could. Working from home didn’t give her the
opportunities to make friends in the workplace. But she overzealously tried to
find common ground with most every woman in the grocery store or the other
shops on Main Street.
She was reluctantly invited to help put the posters up. “They
don’t know what they’re missing,” she comforted herself. “I can do so much more,
we could work together, my ideas would complement theirs, not challenge them. Maybe
next year.”
This year, she would again try to enjoy being a mere
participant, properly dressed this time!
The day before the ball she walked all the way to the dry
cleaners, hoping to strike up conversation with anyone who looked her way. She
wasn’t all that successful but talked the ears off the girl behind the counter
at the cleaners.
When the girl retrieved the dress for her, she reached out
with joy, knowing she’d fit in this year.
But the air left her lungs as she beheld her beautiful GREEN
dress.
“How could this have happened?” she whispered to herself,
trying to hide her panic.
She nodded at the girl and quickly left, clutching the dress
close so no one would ask to see it. Not that anyone did.
She hurried home, forcing her tears to wait till she was
behind closed doors.
She hung the dress in the hallway and stepped back to look at
it again. She choked on her own spit. How had her beautiful blue gown turned
green? Was this some cruel joke conjured up by someone who knew how embarrassed
she’d been last year? She stared at it for at least ten minutes before she
tossed it in the closet, letting it fall to the floor and slammed the door
shut.
“The ball is tomorrow night. There’s no time to find
something else that will work, surely every blue dress in town had been bought
up by now,” she spoke down to herself. Even the few friends she’d made wouldn’t
be able to help.
“It is what it is. I just won’t go,” she said with a stiff
upper lip. “Maybe I’ll drive to the next town over and see a movie. By myself.”
After a deep breath and a promise to herself not to cry, she
headed to the kitchen for ice cream.
A week later, disappointment still covering every place on
her face, she was searching for a missing sneaker. “I live alone!” she
muttered, “How can it not be with the other one?”
Crawling on her bedroom floor, she looked under the bed on
both sides, then reached up to turn the knob on her closet door. Pulling it open,
she grumbled a curse on herself if it wasn’t hiding somewhere in there.
Sitting crossed legged on the floor in front of the closet, her
eyes wandered over to the new dress she’d refused to look at all week, still
covered in the dry cleaners plastic.
Before she could even begin to search for her sneaker, her
eyes widened and she gasped, holding her hands over her mouth.
In slow motion, she reached forward to grab at the dress.
The plastic wrap protecting it was – yellow!
How had she not seen that the day she picked it up?
She frantically ripped off the plastic to see that yes; her dress
was still – blue.
She had no one to blame. She had no words to hurl at her own
baffled brain. She felt tears gather in the corner of her eyes. She rocked back
and forth for a few minutes, holding the dress to her chest. Then she wept.
What illusions are we falling for?
What color is the veil that hides God’s truth from us,
keeping us from fulfilling His purposes in our lives?
What color veil has satan hung between our eyes and our
reflection, hiding our beauty from us?
Our heavenly Father is the only One Who sees us as we truly
are, because He sees the new creation we became when we first trusted in His
Son.
I’m praying we begin to recognize the “protective plastic”
that obscures truth and fools us into believing lies about ourselves AND lies about
God, Himself.
