Playing in the mud

So this is the photo that started it all. There is a movie that I am a fan of called Mona Lisa smile and she takes them to a warehouse and pulls out a painting and tells them to just look at it. I would encourage you to do that for a moment.

When I first started this blog a girl that I work with and I had a bunch of photo shoot ideas and one of them was a in it and not of it shoot. The idea was to dress someone up like a beautiful bride and then take photos of her in different places that were dirty. She would be in it and not of it and that is what we are called to do. Not to hide from the world but to be different from it. To be a contrast to our surroundings.

However many times we fall short of that goal. We find ourselves in the mud trying to look like the world even though we are called to something so much better.
It seems easier to look like everyone else rather than to stick out and be different.
But I look at this photo and see a girl who has one dirty dress. A dress that is going to take some serious work to clean. Jesus does that work for us but we have to go to him. The fact is the deeper the stain is in there. The more we want to hold onto it. The harder it is to show Jesus what we have done and allow him to get rid of it. To restore our dress to their former glory.

This bride that looks as though she has been plating in the mud is alone and dirty.
I looked at this photo and thought that is just crazy. It is such a contrast to the kind of photos normally taken of brides in their wedding dresses. Brides who are full of joy and know they are loved and that they get to spend the rest of their life with the man that loves them more than anyone in the world. The man who chose them. Photos of saying vows, dancing, eating, celebrating. Not photos of a girl alone in the mud.

Jesus chose us. He gave it all for us and loves us more than anyone in the world ever could. We should be celebrating with him. We should be full of joy, knowing he is going to take care of us forever and death will never do us part. Not playing in the mud by ourselves.

This girl like so many of us is still in her wedding dress. Underneath all of the dirt she knows she is still in a wedding dress. Still meant to be living like a bride. The world on some level knows it to. When we play in the mud we are still in in that dress. We still belong to someone else. We belong somewhere else. We belong with Jesus.

The thing about playing in the mud is that it is fun, while you are playing. Afterwards the walking around with dry caked on mud is uncomfortable gross. When it gets to that point you have 2 options. option one go back to playing in the mud because you are dirty already. Or option 2 go clean up which is more of a process but always the better choice.