A Clean Shower For All

Revelation 7:9-17

Last week I had an opportunity to speak with one of the students at my high school. She was just passing by, looking for one of her teachers, when she saw I was sitting in an empty classroom. She walked into our class, which is built to fit 100 students, and looked around just before saying, "Mister, you're all alone." and sitting down to have a talk with me.

We talked about volleyball, as she's on the team. We also talked about her family and her boyfriend. She asked about my family as well, and I told her about my wife and son. It was a good conversation, helping us to get to know each other beyond the basic student/teacher classroom relationship.

While in conversation about what we do on the weekends she mentioned that she goes to church every Sunday. I told her I do too, expanding on how I work with teens and young adults at our church. Her eyes opened a little, a small smile on her face as she said, "I can totally see you as a youth pastor.", which made me smile.

As we talked more about church and family and friends she told me how she knew of a lot of her friends who used to go to church and how it seems that now most of her friends are more about being noticed then being friends. I asked her what she meant and she said that a lot of the girls she grew up with in elementary and middle school are different now, and she doesn't know how to react to them.

I still wasn't really clear what she meant, so I asked for an example. She proceeded to tell me about a girl she knew since the first grade. They were good friends growing up, living only a few blocks from one another. They did everything together, including going to church. Then they got to high school and this friend of hers changed. She started wearing revealing clothes and hanging out with senior boys as well as doing other things to make herself look older and more "appealing" to older boys.

My new-found friend found herself in a predicament: in order to remain friends she felt as though she had to become just like her, and she was unwilling to just that. But, she told me, she really wanted to get her friend back. I told her that sometimes people change because they don't believe in themselves; their self-esteem is very low. Mix into this a deep need to belong in some kind of group as well as the search for an identity by people at her friend's age, and sometimes those close to us seem to be different than the ones we knew at a younger age, when deep inside they are really the same

What she might try, I told her, is to reach out to her friend and let her know that she still cares about her, and misses hanging out and talking. "Let your friend know you still love her, regardless of the recent decisions she's making." I told her.

Today, as I once again sat in an empty classroom, my new-found friend walked by and joined me for some conversation. She told me she did what I said and it made her friend cry. She continued to tell me that her friend explained that she thought she had lost all her friends because of how she was dressing and acting and she didn't know what to do. I simply smiled and said, "Isn't it a great feeling to be in a friendship where unconditional love, the kind of love God gives us, is what the friendship is based on?" She smiled and I could see a tear form in her eye. I told her she was the best friend her friend could have.

This passage in Revelation reminds me that when we're in the presence of a loving God, we can't help but to have our "robes" cleansed. We can't help but to shed the things which we wear to define us, but aren't really who we are. It also reminds me that this cleansing of our outer self, if that's what we can call it, is for all people from all nations - all. The love of God is not exclusive, nor does it make judgement as to who receives that love.

I look forward to the next conversation with my new-found friend and to hear about how much closer her and her childhood friend had grown together once again.