October 28, 2019

I am pumped. Halloween is coming and our church is having a Fall Festival. Shannon signed us up to be in the Trunk or Treat.

Last night, Shannon volunteered to make my costume. Immediately I had a flashback to my twenties, when I was an officer in an armored cavalry regiment, and had trusted my sister-in-law to make my costume, which she mailed from Texas to Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Not opening the box until it was time to get ready for the squadron’s party, I was horrified to find that my sister-in-law had sent a Peter Pan costume, complete with pointy ears and green tights. But having no choice, I put on the costume and prayed I would survive the night.

When I arrived at the party, all the other officers were dressed as Arab sheiks, fighter pilots, and cowboys. And as I taking substantial abuse from my fellow lieutenants, the squadron commander walked up, smiled and said, “Robbins, I didn’t know you had such good looking legs.” I was permanently traumatized.

So when Shannon offered to make my costume and saw the panic on my face, she said, “Don’t worry. I won’t make you Peter Pan. How about Woody?” And since I am a big fan of the Toy Story movies, I was all in.

All of us, in one way or another present on image to the world based on how we want to be perceived. And for the most part, we hide the self-consumed, ugly parts of who we are because they are incredibly unpleasant to look at or acknowledge. But God is never fooled.

God sees both the good and bad in us. There is nothing we can hide, and the miracle is that, even after seeing all the terrible flaws that we keep hidden away, God still chooses to love us.

When Samuel is sent to anoint the new king, he gets it wrong time after time because he is only judging based on what he can see, but the scriptures tell us that God used a different criteria than outer appearance.

The Bible says: “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

God sees who you truly are. So do everything in your power to eliminate the parts of you that you wish God would never see. Push any greed, covetousness, or needless anger out of your heart and fill it with compassion, joy, and grace. By doing so, you will become a better person, and while the world may not see the truth, God will, and God’s the only one that truly matters.

Prayer: Dear Gracious Heavenly God, help me be the person you created me to be. Help me expel from my heart everything that does not please you. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

The two things I know for sure are that God sees the real me and God never wants me to wear a Peter Pan costume again. That proves God is good.

I pray your day is filled with joy and laughter.

Tom Robbins