The Red Dress

Occasionally, I watch the TV show “Say ‘Yes, to the Dress’ “. For those who are not familiar with this show, a bride goes into a dress shop usually bringing 4-5 people; mothers, bridesmaids or occasionally a father. She tries on different dresses; parading in front of those people while they comment on how she looks. Finally, after trying on endless dresses, she finds “the dress” and says “Yes, to the Dress”. While watching the show, I recalled a small wedding we were to photograph at the Worship Center on the grounds of Thorncrown Chapel. When time is of the essence, we always liked to take some photographs beforehand.

Having spoken with the bride by phone, yet never seeing her, we were not familiar with how she looked. As we waited patiently for someone to show up, a young lady dressed in a tea length white gown, complete with white gloves, a pillbox hat and white shoes came from the direction of the dressing room.

“Hello”, my husband said, “I’m John, your photographer and this is my wife, Jo Ann. If you’re ready, we’d love to take a few pictures of you before the wedding.”

The young lady smiled , “Okay, the bride will be here in just a few minutes. She is just finishing up dressing. She probably would like to have some pictures made with me.”

John and I glanced at each other. Here was a young lady who looked much like a bride, yet she wasn’t. In a few minutes, another young lady came around the corner, smiling.

“Hi! I’m (and she gave us her name). You must be the photographers. I’m ready for pictures when you are.”

Indeed, we were perplexed! Here was the bride dressed in a bright red tea length dress, red hose, red shoes, red gloves, a pill box hat and carrying a bouquet of beautiful red roses! Looks can be deceiving for sure.

“Then Moses led the people of Israel on from the Red Sea, and they moved out into the wilderness of Shur and were there three days without water. Arriving at Marah, they couldn’t drink the water because it was bitter (that is why the place was called Marah, meaning “bitter”).” Exodus 15:22-23 TLB

Here were the Children of Israel having marched for days through the desert land finally coming upon what looked like perfectly good water. But, as they tasted it, they discovered they were deceived; the water was bitter.

Have you ever been deceived? Satan is The Great Deceiver. Nothing pleases him more than to deceive people; particularly God’s people. One of the big deceptions being some teachers and preachers who distort God’s word. They want to make His word pleasing to our ears so they preach and teach a “feel good” gospel rather than the true gospel of Christ. In order not to be deceived by such teaching, we need to be in God’s word; searching the scripture for ourselves and praying to Him for discernment of each verse.

“Beware of false teachers who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are wolves and will tear you apart.” Matthew 7:15 TLB