I woke up this morning walking around a store. Not just any store but a store that had opened on Christmas Day. The sellers were not very interested.  They had invited me in to help them make some decisions, perhaps even to acquire them.

This was not my first dream of this store or one very similar. Maybe it is how I am wired (Or unwired.) but I like space. I like choice. I like selection. (I have tried selling in niche circumstance but over all I like the broad spectrum approach.)

So here I was in this small store with all these little “nice” pieces but nothing that really excited me. It was pretty. It would look nice in homes or offices. But to me it was chachka.  I walked towards the back and as I got towards the back of the store, I got excited. There was more there! A lot more. I offered to purchase from them and did then I went to the back.

Now these men tried to talk me out of it. That “stuff” back there has not value. They wanted me to look at the glittering glass and beautiful pieces.  (I love glass, but it has to wow me.)

Three stories came to my mind as I thought about this dream.

1. One was the story of Cinderella and how she was treated. But that all changed. Her value became known and was seen in the eyes of another. (For someone here you have “done it all right” but have not been noticed. But God has His eye on you. Soon you will be the Cinderella story.)
2. The second was how Samuel approached Jesse to see His sons, directed there by the Lord. Only when he said “do you have another so” did they go retrieve David from the fields. (You have felt that people did not recognize your value or your gift. The key to your coming success is to not be bitter but to be better. Hone your gift and watch.) (Proverbs 18:16)
3. And the third was the story of the ugly duckling who one day grew into a beautiful swan. (Never judge your life by a day.)

I walked in that back room and it was huge. A long line of chairs and couches and places of rest were visible. My mind spun as I thought how to get people back here. To the place of comfort. The place of rest. The place of quiet. The place hidden from view.

This morning I thought about lost objects. I have misplaced keys and wallets and such. People always ask “where was the last place you saw it?” Most likely if I knew that I would know where it is! And then I thought people are running around, looking for an old man that was killed on a cross with a Savior who made you His “carbon copy.” He put His nature in you!

So stop looking for the dead!

And once we get beyond all the chachka, the stuff that may have value but is really just window dressing we come to the true meaning of “being in Him.” His rest! His place of intimacy and love.

All the things that so many have embraced as God have just made it hard for those who have not “looked” like that.

The intrinsic value of a person is not found in the externals but what is on the inside. (And yet from the place on the inside comes that which is His expression through you to the outside.)

I suggested to someone the other day that maybe they consider being a model. Immediately I was given all the reasons that they could not do that. Most had to do with their evaluation of what is real. When our “inside” is understood and accepted the outside is just an external view of the goodness inside. (By the way-she is a beautiful young lady.)

In the store the men thought work hard, keep it “looking” good and keep it small. I walked in and I saw rest, expanse and intimacy. (In one of my jewelry stores I ran ads that poo-pooed the glass cases that kept people from the touch and feel of the jewelry.) God wants to be seen, touched, enjoyed.

We have made churches that remind me of mortuaries. People who act like zombies. And families that walk around like the Stepford wives.

Real church sometimes is real messy because it involves real people.

So this holiday season He bids you, “come unto me all of you who are heavy laden and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”