BIG YELLOW MAMA
Ever seen any clothing by JesusFreak Outfitters? Check them out on Facebook. I recently met the guy who designs the shirts and I think I wanna give him some competition. I am gutsy like that.
My line of shirts will be called “Big Yellow Mama”. Here in Alabama, Big Yellow Mama is the nick name for the electric chair. I imagine black shirts with a bold yellow electric chair on the front. Across the back a funky yellow font will spell out Big Yellow Mama. That’s the guy’s line. For the girls shirts there will be some bling. Maybe the yellow will have some sparkle. Or even some rhinestones. A bedazzled electric chair- every girl age 13 and up will want one!
Why stop at shirts? I can design purses with the electric chair, and hats with images of the Big Yellow Mama, and OH! JEWELRY! Golden yellow earrings and rings and charms for necklaces of the beautiful chair of the punishment called death!! Maybe even a friendship line where the electric chair is in divided in two, and half goes to one friend and half to the other!! Who is ready to place an order?
Do you think I have lost my mind?
What do you think the cross was designed to be?
One day I was listening to the group Selah sing “Beautiful Terrible Cross” and I was struck by the conflict of those words. How can something be beautiful AND terrible? How? Dictionary.com gives the following definitions:
beau·ti·ful–adjective
1. having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.
2. excellent of its kind: a beautiful putt on the seventh hole; The chef served us a beautiful roast of beef.
3. wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.
ter·ri·ble–adjective
1. distressing; severe: a terrible winter.
2. extremely bad; horrible: terrible coffee; a terrible movie.
3. exciting terror, awe, or great fear; dreadful; awful.
These two words have NOTHING in common at all! So how can the cross be both?
The lyrics of the song give some insight.
“Yet on that beautiful terrible cross you did what only you could,
turning that dark inspired evil of hell into our souls greatest good.”
Jesus took something terrible and made it beautiful. Terrible for Jesus, beautiful for us. Jesus took the death sentence of his day and turned it into an eternal life sentence for all who will follow him.
He has the ability to take all of our ugliness, our filth, our hidden dirt, every single bit of terrible we tuck away, and can turn it into beauty if we let him.
When Abba Father looks at us, he sees our beauty because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.
The next time you see some trendy cross fashions, whether worn by a friend or in your own closet, I hope you will pause for a moment and be thankful for what it was originally designed to be, and what it became for all of us through Jesus. The beautiful terrible cross.
And don’t worry, my friend at JesusFreak Outfitters, and the rest of you. I was only teasing about the Big Yellow Mama line of fashion. ;-)
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did. Romans 6:6-11 MSG
–GiGi
GOD LOVES TEENAGERS!
About Gigi
Pingback: Top 10 Posts of 2011 « the attic online!
I’m preaching on this tonight! Talking about the “Beautiful, Terrible Cross” and Big Yellow Mama and Communion and Death Row. I wish you could be there.
You are covering a ton of topics!! :) I wish too.