Because I Said So...

Yesterday I went to lunch with a co-worker. As we sat down at our table and began eating and chit chatting about our day we saw a group of older ladies walk to a table close to us but two of them caught our attention. One lady was dressed to the ninth. She had on a multi-colored jacket, her make-up was impeccable and not a hair was out of place. She had rings on almost every finger and walked with a sort of air about her. The other lady had a color checkered scarf around her head, big black Hollywood movie star rim sunglasses and her clothes were a bluish gray color. Even her BOOTS! She had a small gray purse that dangled from the bend of her arm with small silver claps on the front. As my co-worker and I sat there we begin to talk in wonderment about what type of life these women had lived. We wondered if the lady with the big rim glasses had been famous in her younger days or if the lady in the multi-colored coat had married a rich executive. We snickered as they talked because they seemed to be living and have lived in such a different world then she and I ever knew existed.

As we ate our lunch and talked some more I just couldn’t help but watch these two women. There was something about them. Something special, something that just was. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it but I knew they weren’t like me. As I returned to my desk God laid a heavy thought on my heart. "Do others see something special about you? Do other people look at you and see that you stand out from the crowd and even though they don’t know what it is they can just tell you’re different?" These questions begin to plague me and I began to mutter (as my Daddy always says).

God instructs us in his word to be set part from the world. In 2 Corinthians 6:17 he says "Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord." Did you catch the last part? "Says the LORD." Have you ever said "Because I said so!"? Oh, as a mother of a 16 year old and a 12 year old I loudly say those words quite often. I say those words when I want my children to understand that they don’t have to agree with me but they are going to honor them because I am their mother and I SAID SO! God is doing the same thing here. He is telling us that as Christians we are to be set aside from everyone else. We are different, we are special, we are unique. Why? Because he said so!

I sat at my desk with my mouth gaped open looking like a toad waiting to catch a fly in utter amazement of how God reveals things to me. I sat up a little straighter in my chair, straightened my shirt and ran my fingers through the static filled mop that sits atop my head. I took a moment to just catch my breath and vowed to be different, to smile at others when I really don’t feel like it, to be nice to the lady at the the department store this holiday season who is checking out in front of me and has 17 coupons and wants to pay for her items with 5 different credit cards, stopping to hug my children instead of rushing them along so I can hurry up and finish supper, stopping and actually listening intently to my husband as he rambles on about something I don’t understand and stopping to make sure that I don’t rush past someone who needs a hand to lift them up, a hug to brighten their day or a shoulder to dry their tears. I want to stand out! I want to be different!