As a kid, getting ready to go to church on Sunday mornings was quite the ordeal for my parents. The chore was especially rigorous for Mom who carefully critiqued the outward appearance of her seven offspring before we left the house. Did our socks match, was our skirt too short, was our hair parted and combed, were our shoes shined? How did our hands look? Were they clean? Were our cuticles pushed back? And what about our posture?  Were we standing erect with shoulders back? 

        Qualifiers

Grooming ourselves to go to church, I’ve learned, is not the same as coming just as we are, to Jesus. 

When I think back to the day Jesus showed up and invited me into a personalized one on one relationship with himself, my condition was in an awful state. 

First of all, I’d pinned the blame on God for my father’s death which resulted in ignoring God. For almost a decade, I did not attend church nor did I pray. Not only that, I lived out of wedlock with my boyfriend. My attire, bell bottom pants and bra-less tops, I looked and acted hippish.  

I fell way below par with the values I’d grown up with. I knew my mother was not proud of me and if my father had been alive, he would not have been proud of me either. I was a disappointing and defective daughter. 

Yet, when Jesus showed up, my appearance, my flawed performance, and imperfect condition were the perfect qualifications for me to begin a relationship with him. 

Experiencing perfect understanding and instantaneous acceptance the very moment of being in the presence of Someone who is flawless, supreme and untarnished, and not arrogant, was the oddest and most sensational sensation I’d ever experienced. 

In the presence of Jesus, I suddenly and instantly knew that the only qualification required to receive and continue to receive the most extravagant, excessive and lavish love imaginable, was to believe the unbelievable; that I was loved and accepted, instantly, just as I was. 

God does not shake his head and tsk, tsk, our appearance or behavior before showing up in our lives. He simply shows up and invites us to partake in the most outrageous, unprecedented and excessive love relationship we could ever imagine.    

Why bother considering our condition? We don’t have to clean up our act before acting on faith. On the contrary, God acts on our behalf, no matter the condition of our condition.