Texas

I spent the weekend in Texas.  I decided last Tuesday that I wanted to go.  Matt used his frequent flyer miles to get me a ticket and I flew down to Waxahachie on Friday morning.  I went with a couple of girlfriends to a Bible conference.  Crazy.  In fact I spent the better part of Tuesday convincing my kids that yes, I really was going to Texas.
The conference was called "Clothing:  Body and Spirit" and was taught by Barbara Mouser, the same women who wrote the Five Aspects of Woman.  The subject of clothing is covered throughout the entire Bible.  Barbara calls it a Bible theme.  Her definition of a Bible theme is a subject that is introduced in Genesis, developed in the Old Testament, brought to a climax in the Gospels of the New Testament (especially during Passion Week), explained and proclaimed in the New Testament epistles and brought to a culmination in Revelation.
So we began in Genesis, with the inadequate fig leaves (dead works which could not cover Adam & Eve's sin), moved on to the humiliation to which God subjected Himself as He dealt with unclean dead animal skins to produce new clothing to cover Adam & Eve, to the development of the particulars of unclean clothing as outlined in the Old Testament as well as the metaphorical clothes with which God clothed Israel in Ezekiel and Isaiah.
We then moved into the New Testament, where we discussed the stripping and dressing of Jesus in royal robes for the purpose of mockery (the irony being that He really is King of Kings and deserving of such royal attire & worship).  We kept going into the epistles (Romans, Colossians, Ephesians) where we talked about how we as Christians are to "put off the old man" and "put on the new man," that is, Jesus Christ.
In between the different "portraits of God" we studied, we worshipped God with small liturgies.  These liturgies included scriptures, prayers of thanksgiving to God for the particular ways He reveals Himself through clothing (whether it be how He Himself is clothed--majesty, honor, light--or how He clothes the universe or the willingness of Jesus to humble Himself to come to earth and be wrapped in swaddling clothes) and hymns whose words directly reflected the "portrait" we had just studied.
Needless to say, I was completely overwhelmed by Barbara's teaching.  I told Matt she seemed to me to be the female equivalent of Dr. Kenneth Bailey.  Being placed in front of a fire hose does not adequately explain how I felt as scripture after scripture was opened to me in ways I had never before heard.  Tsunami might be a more appropriate word.  Believe me when I say, the words I wrote above are a very inadequate attempt to explain the ground we covered this past weekend.
Additionally, God really blessed me with some new insights into some things I've been working on with Him this past year.  He answered specific prayers with specific answers which I will get to in another post when I've had a bit more time to process my thoughts.
I had turned down my friend Tammy's invitation to go to this conference repeatedly over the past few months.  I turned her down again last Monday evening.  Then I woke up Tuesday morning and prayed, "Lord if you want me to go to that conference, You're going to have to make it possible."  And He did, because nothing is impossible with God.