Image Consultant

I was out running one morning and as I came around the corner of a building I saw a woman walking to her car that caught my attention. She was pretty plain looking and had her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing old shorts and a T-shirt. She had on sneakers and she was a bit over weight.
It’s funny all the things you notice in just a few seconds. I didn’t know why I noticed any of it until a few minutes later.
Before I tell you what happened next I want to describe to you what I looked like so you don’t think I’m making fun of this woman. As I said I was running so first off I had NO makeup on except the left over mascara under my eyes from the night before. I was wearing my daughter’s faded soccer T-shirt that was a size to big. My knobby knees were aching from the run so I was limping a bit. To top off my beauty my frizzy hair was not in a pony tail but lose and flowing free.
Now let me explain something to you about people with frizzy hair. When it’s damp outside, and we all know how damp it’s been, frizzy hair grows out not down. To give you a visual, if my hair was any bigger I would have had to widen my front door to get in the house.
With that said I turned the corner and kept running. A few minutes later the woman drove by me in an old beat up car. As she passed I saw writing on her back window advertising her company. It said in big bold letters Image Consultant. I started laughing as I saw what the car looked like and remembered what she looked like. I thought to myself if that’s the image she’s selling I’ll pass.
As always the Holy Spirit, being more mature than me pointed out what He wanted me to see. He said “you’re right, if you were going to hire an image consultant you would expect a more sophisticated looking person. Someone you think looks better than you, especially if you’re out running, or at least appeared they had it all together. An image consultant that didn’t drive a Pinto or an El Comino, but maybe something a bit nicer. “
I started thinking about Christians, if we dressed real nice all the time and always looked like we had it all together would we be able to reach people? What would make a Christian “look” like a Jesus Consultant?
About a week later I was sitting on a bench on the street corner in the small town where I live. It was late and I was there with some friends, we had just left a restaurant where we were doing praise and worship and praying for each other. We were now just sitting together talking and listening to one of the guys playing his guitar. It was about 1:00 a.m. and we were across the street from the local bar. A woman came out of the bar and walked over to where we were sitting and sat in the flower planter at the end of the bench I was sitting on. This of course got our attention and we started talking to her.
A few minutes later she passed me a joint. After I realized what it was, it’s been a while, I said no thanks. I told her I didn’t party anymore and she asked me an interesting question. She said “if you don’t party anymore than what catches you when you fall?” I looked her straight in the eye and said “Jesus”.
This opened the door to our conversation with her and her male friend that joined us. We invited them up to the restaurant and got to know each other a little better.
She later told us that she heard us talking about Jesus and decided to test us by handing me the joint. She figured we would be rude or blow her off and she was surprised that we accepted her right where she was. We had an awesome time with our new friend and as she left she said “I hope to see you lingering on this corner next Friday night too”.
I realized it didn’t matter what I looked like but rather what I sounded like that touched this woman. I could have been in a beautiful dress or in the old jeans I was wearing. What mattered was what came out of my mouth. Was I going to accept her?
More importantly was I going portray the “image” of God and His love that she heard us talking about.
Genesis 1:27 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness”.
John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”
It was a powerful test and I’m glad we passed that night.
I pray in the future no matter what we’re wearing or where we are that we will advertise an Image Consultant the Lord would be happy to hire.

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