Does God Care What You Wear?

In my Sunday school class, there was a discussion about the reasons people do not come to church. One of the reasons mentioned was people who say, "I do not have the right clothes to wear." In my mind I began to wonder; does God care what you wear while you are worshipping?

I have attended a few churches throughout my life and I was always taught to wear a dress and nice shoes and to look presentable. Understand, however, I was raised by a family who owned a ladies clothing store. The chances that I would ever have been without dress clothes were nil.

Today's standards are obviously more relaxed as fewer men wear suits and more of them wear nice slacks and sport shirts and many women forgo hosiery, something that would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.

When I was younger we attended a Baptist church where everyone was dressed to the teeth. Even the youngest boys were in suits and girls were in frilly dresses. I got the impression that they were dressing not to impress God, but each other.

In my young adult years I began attending a Pentecostal church. In many people's minds this brings up visions of Tammy Faye, makeup applied with a trowel and hair that had been teased into a giant pouf atop a woman's head. Truthfully, there are women in the church dressed like that, but there are also many women in much more moderate apparel; nice skirts and blouses with tasteful makeup and hair.

What I found the most surprising though was the range of attire that people wore. Women were in everything from cocktail dresses to hot pants. There have been many times I have seen men there in jeans, t-shirts, and leather motorcycle apparel complete with chains. No one blinked an eye at what others were wearing. Why? Because they were there worshipping a God who loves them for who they are and not what they wore to church.