This morning Meghan Markle and I became close. Sure, she has never met me, but that is besides the point. I am an Australian, and this morning Meghan clothed herself in an Australian dress. Royalty and I practically became one.
I like to think that Meghan Markle is who I would be if I were a princess. I would be as poised as she, as beautiful, as elegant, as talented and adored. I too could look as warm and would open-up the hearts of the world. She is basically my princess self. And today ‘princess’ and ‘self’ were bought together by Meghan Markle and Karen Gee.
I like to think that Meghan Markle is who I would be if I were a princess. She is basically my princess self.
So it’s only right that I found myself googling ‘Karen Gee Blessed Dress.’ I needed to connect with the dress which represents me—the average Australian woman (who apparently would spend $1800 on a dress)—if I was to successfully connect with my royal self … to be met by beauty, glory, and fame.
Our Royal Selves
To my surprise I wasn’t alone in this experience. Karen Gee’s website crashed within a couple of minutes before Meghan and the Blessed Dress (the actual name of the dress!) made their happy reveal. Apparently, there are Australians everywhere (I presume mostly women) wanting to connect with their royal self.
Such an unprecedented response to Meghan Markle and her Blessed Dress made me stop to consider: what does Meghan’s dress reveal about me? What does it reveal about all of us?
Deep down in all of us there appears a desire for our ordinary existence to be extraordinary. For our undignified self to be dignified. For the seemingly insignificant cycles of toddler tantrums, meetings, emails, deadlines, and exhaustion to be part of something actually glorious. This morning, in a moment, as royalty (with all the glory it represents) took on an Australian-made dress for all the world to see, that glory that we all seek seemed that much closer.
Deep down in all of us there appears a desire for our ordinary existence to be extraordinary. For our undignified self to be dignified.
Short-Lived Glory
But by mid-afternoon Meghan Markle had already taken off her dress. And replaced it with something by … you guessed it … another foreign designer. Our glory had been short lived.
So what do we do with unsatisfied desire for significance and glory? Some of us will attempt to buy the Blessed Dress so that—even if royalty isn’t clothing itself with the Aussie woman—the Aussie woman can clothe herself with royalty. I am not so lucky.
Eternal Glory
And yet there was another Royal who put on my dress. And even better … he never took it off. A little over 2000 years ago, the King of Heaven and Earth entered into the world he created. He clothed himself with the very stuff he created: humanity.
In the opening chapter of John’s Gospel, we learn that the ‘Word’ who was with God in the beginning—and who was God (vv. 1-2)—‘became flesh and made his dwelling among us’ (v.14).
Jesus—Glory in flesh—opened the doors to glory; a promised eternity with the King and his Kingdom
In the moment of the incarnation, the One who is God’s Son by nature, also became one of us. Glory made its home in flesh, and human flesh became welcome in glory. Why? Because Jesus lived the life of obedience in the flesh that we did not; because he broke the power of death in the way that we could not; because he ascended to the Father as we have not. Jesus—Glory in flesh—opened the doors to glory for humanity. For all who trust in Jesus, glory is not a fleeting brush with fame, but a promised eternity with the King and his Kingdom … ushered in through the resurrection to come:
‘I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:50-53).
Now that is a dress I can own. That is a glory I can keep. That is significance that I can rejoice in.
