Yesterday I had a bad hair day.  My hair is really thick and course.  When I am in need of a haircut, it's not so much the length that goes bad, it's the thickness that becomes the problem.  That is what happened yesterday.  My hair looked like a chia pet that had been fed plant steroids.  It was like Chia's Gone Wild.  On the way to church I looked in the passenger seat mirror one last time to see if it had miraculously tamed down.  You never know, I had been praying in the Spirit all morning.....maybe it was my hair I was praying for!  The reflection revealed there was no hair miracle.  I spent a quick minute trying to get the proper pieces to either stick up or lie down.  Short hair looks simple, but there is in fact a rhyme and reason to the messy look.  It is actually a very strategic process- trying to look like you didn't spend time on your hair.  Well this morning I definitely got the messy look down, except it wasn't cute.  It just simply looked like I didn't try to do my hair.  As I closed up the mirror, I heard a thought in my head........what a Beautiful Mess.
A beautiful mess?  That seems a little extreme.  It's just a bad hair day!  Now I admit, there was a time when a bad hair day would ruin my day.  I would be so wrapped up in and self conscious about my hair that I would miss the world around me (if I even bothered participating in it at all).  But those days are long gone.  I would go to church in curlers, pajamas and bunny slippers if I had to.  I am much less dependent on my appearance than I once was (which is a good thing as the years go by).  I knew though that I had "heard" this title.  It happens a lot that way.  I will be going about my day to day routine and the Lord will drop a title in my heart.  I hear the title perfectly clear.....what I do not receive is what it means, and what it is in reference to.  It kept coming to me during the day.  Beautiful mess.  Beautiful mess.  Beautiful mess.  
I thought the Lord was reassuring me that even when we make mistakes, he still loves us and finds us beautiful.  But that wasn't it.  As born again Christians, we are no longer a mess, and we should not look at ourselves that way.   Sure, our lives can get a bit messy, but we ourselves are not.  We are a new creature in Christ- even if our lives and personalities haven't fully put that truth into practice!  We are no longer a mess.  We wear our white robes of right standing with God each and every day.  Our robes are beautiful.....and they are never a mess.  They have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus.  We are given these white robes of right standing when we first become born again.  The best part of these robes is that they will always be white!  Jesus' shed blood is a stain repellent.  The devil may try to stick you with a stain of your sin, but just as it hits your robe, it instantly vanishes!  It leaves no trace of your mistake.  You are forever washed clean by the blood of the Jesus.    
I hear many Girls speak in a way that reveals they do not fully understand this truth.  They believe they are walking around with "dirty" robes.  They have no problem believing they were given a beautiful white robe when they first asked Jesus to be their Lord and Savior, but since then they have been accumulating stains.  They have a coffee stain of harsh words spoken to their spouse on the front.  There is a peanut butter toast drop of guilt on the lap.  There is baby spit up of imperfect parenting on the shoulder.  There is a yellow highlighter mark on the sleeve where they forgot to read their Bible.  There is a hole in the pocket from neglecting their prayer time.  Over the years their white robe of right standing has become a tattered, torn, dirty reminder that they still don't measure up. 
The biggest danger in this is that eventually you will no longer want to put on your robe each day.  If you feel you have accumulated these stains, you will leave your robe in a pile on the floor.  It is too painful and disgusting to put on.  You throw it in the laundry pile of failures along with all of your other mistakes.  You will get to it when you can.  The problem is, the only One who can wash your robe is Jesus.  You can rub in all the stain fighter you want.  You can pre treat it, soak it, wash it in hot water, hang it in the sun to dry, but it still will not come clean.  There is nothing you can do to make it white again!  Just as Jesus gave you the white robe, He is also the One who keeps it white.  So Girls, stop trying to wash your robe.....for it is already clean!