Pretty Woman: Image is Everything?!
Do you remember the classic scene from the movie Pretty Woman when Vivian (Julia Roberts) returns to the hoighty toighty store in Beverly Hills dressed “to the nines” with her arms full of shopping bags? She seeks her revenge after the shop assistants were so snooty to her the first time she came into their store…when she was dressed at the opposite end of the spectrum:
Shop assistant: “Hello, can I help you?”
Vivian: “I was in here yesterday, you wouldn’t wait on me.”
Shop assistant: “Oh.”
Vivian: “You people work on commission, right?”
Shop assistant: “Yeah.”
Vivian: “Big mistake. Big. Huge. I have to go shopping now.”
Sociology 101
That scene from Pretty Woman reminds me of my sociology class in college. We would go to the mall to do “experiments,” in which we would observe how clerks in a store would respond to different “characters” from our class. One of us would be dressed in expensive, fashionable clothing with beautiful jewelry, and impeccable hair, nails and makeup. One would dress in an average outfit: plain jeans, simple T-shirt, ordinary sneakers and hair in a ponytail. Then one would don something very unusual, like a silky kimono with combat boots and spiked up hair. Lastly there would be one in dirty and shabby clothing, looking “tow up from the flo up!!”
It was fascinating to see the responses!
It doesn’t take long to realize that in this world, our image is a huge factor in how we’re valued and therefore treated. In our sociology experiment, our predictions absolutely came true: the person dressed in wealthy attire was treated royally. The person dressed in average gear was treated in an average way; not ignored but not favored either. The person with the unusual attire received attention alright…but it wasn’t positive…more like…”We’d really like it if you would just go somewhere else!” And the dirty/shabby one was treated pretty poorly, sometimes ignored and sometimes treated quite rudely.
Am I Predictable?
It made me think: “I don’t want to be predictable! I want to be one who speaks kindly and acts graciously to ALL people!”
James chapter 2:1-4,8-9 explains it this way:
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers.
That’s The World
The world always puts a huge emphasis on image. It always has and it always will.
Consequently, that’s one of the reasons why it is really hard to get this: God’s love is based on Him, not on us! I’m so thankful His ways are higher than our ways, and that He sees our heart, and doesn’t judge us by our image! See, it is really hard to understand and to accept His unconditional love…because in this world...it doesn’t work that way.
God loves us, and it’s not because of anything we are or anything we do. Everything we have learned from how the world values people for their image has to be recognized as “of this world.” It is not from God. We have to quit trying to deserve or earn His love, and instead simply receive it and enjoy it! Bask in His love, soak in it, and let it saturate your soul! If we can get a hold of that truth, we will love Him back with passion and be able to love others unconditionally too.
“The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” I Samuel 16:7