wrappers

This past week I've thought a lot about packaging.

Outward appearance isn't everything, but it does make a big difference. As an idealist teen it always aggravated me that boys gravitated toward the pretty girls, whether they had brains or not. I could understand why they were interested in the girls who had a nice personality and were pretty, but the mean ones? By college I realized I was interested in outward appearance much more than I ever dreamed possible. One of my fellow first shift cafeteria workers would show up downstairs at 6:30am in clothes that had not been ironed (and mind you...they looked as if they had been wadded up wet and then stuffed in a drawer!), and her hair brushed but not fixed. Her mindset was that her clothes were clean, they matched, she was clean, her face was washed, so what else did she need to worry about? Mind you, she was very smart and very nice, but her appearance drove me crazy!!! I wanted her to at least look like she cared about herself. (and to be fair, the last time I saw her she had "grown up" and had on neat clothes and her hair was combed into place).

At a funeral I attended this past week, one of the family members showed up in blue jeans and a t-shirt. Most of the family was aghast. You know, that's just not the southern thing to do. If you don't have black or grey dress clothes, then you wear your Sunday best. It's one of those unwritten laws that are floating around out there. It was interesting to see the different reactions. Some people thought it was downright indecent. It's not like the person couldn't afford dress clothes even if they didn't own any. But I could also hear my great-uncle saying, "Why buy clothes I'm only going to be made to wear one time?" (He would wear a brand new pair of overalls to weddings and funerals.) A part of me thought the person was brave. You're emotionally miserable, so why be physically miserable as well? (Can you tell I'm not crazy about dress clothes?) Others wondered if he was trying to make a point, and if so, what it was. Meanwhile a small part of me was wondering what all the fuss was about.

Packaging...in design they say how you package and market a product will determine how it sells in the beginning. After the initial purchase, then the product has to sell itself. You can have the most appealing design and packaging and an irresistible marketing campaign, but if the product itself isn't worth anything then people will never buy it again.

And it makes me wonder how people perceive me. Do I come across as friendly or stuck-up? Are people willing to give me a try? Is there any substance past my outward appearance to make me interesting?

As a child I used to worry about being given robes of white to wear in heaven. I am a very messy person, and anything I own that is white inevitably winds up stained. Can't you just see me standing before Jesus with a fruit stain from the Tree of Life on my robe?

Wrappers...wouldn't it be cool if we didn't have any in heaven at all?