I’m sitting here looking at an ad in GQ magazine for a thousand dollar pair of jeans. Both legs have frayed holes in them and they look like they have been tied to the back of a car and dragged twenty miles down a gravel road. Are people really that gullible? Surely one could get such a ragged pair of jeans in the throw away bin at the Salvation Army. It must be something akin to the Emperor’s clothes. If enough people say it’s cool and chic, someone will buy them.
But wait a minute. Couldn’t someone make a similar accusation against God? Jesus came and paid a horrendous price for us and what did He get? He paid for a bunch of losers. Thieves, boasters, prideful arrogant alcoholics, drug-addicted cruel self-seekers, liars and murderers are what He bought. I’m not so sure God is a savvy shopper. Honestly, He has lousy taste when it comes to His friends. Even His enemies picked up on that. They said, “When the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, how is it that he eats and drinks with publicans and sinners?” One of His closest friends was a woman of ill-repute. Why He would even eat with you and me! That’s getting pretty low.
Ah, but there is a difference. The thousand dollar pair of jeans will only continue to deteriorate, but all of us reprobates will change. Someday we will be everything He longs for us to be. Someday we will be so much like Him we will get confused and think we are seeing Him when we are seeing each other. So, just maybe, He really is a savvy shopper.