The Return

I remember my mother taking me shopping for a new Easter dress.
Sometimes, we found the dress right away.
Other times, we had to go to quite a few stores before finding the right one.
There was no online shopping back then.

It was not uncommon to go to three or four stores.
When I was a young girl, we shopped at single stores since there were no malls yet.
We often took the train to the city.
There were many stores within walking distance and we would stop for lunch as well.

I continued the tradition with my own children.
My girls loved getting a new Easter dress.
My boys trusted that I would find a nice shirt for them to wear.
Clothes shopping was not high on their list of favorite things to do back then.

Shopping for my children was necessary, since they grew so much each year.
I passed down clothes.
There were creative ways to make an outfit look a bit different.
I can still see the labeled boxes in the nursery closet filled with clothes of various sizes.

As they got older, a shopping trip was still enjoyable to do together.
Back to school shopping was a must.
Shopping for a special occasion was always fun.
I knew what they liked and understood the nuances of their style.

I was thinking about all of this when I went to the store to make a return.
I was shopping for myself and bought two dresses, which were on sale.
I always like to find something on sale that I would never buy at full price.
It is the quest to find the right dress and find it on sale that makes it so exciting.

I never took the tags off the dress.
I hung it in my closet next to my other dresses.
Right before Easter, I saw another dress, also on sale, and bought that as well.
I took it home to decide which one I wanted to wear for Easter.

Something was just not right about either dress.
They fit me.
They were really cute.
They were just not me.

I tried them on for my youngest daughter.
She tightened the belt.
She bloused the top.
She had me turn around.

There was just something that was not right.
I really wanted one of these dresses to work, since the sale price was so good.
I heard my mother’s voice saying the words she repeated often as I was growing up.
Fashion is what looks good on you.

No shoes or accessories were going to make these dresses work for me.
I knew they had to go back to the store.
I covered the dresses with the plastic cover that went over both of the hangers.
I went back to the store.

I gave the woman my two receipts.
I took out my credit card so she could process the return.
Is there anything wrong with the dresses? She asked me.
No, not a thing; they just look better on the hanger, I admitted.

She looked up at me.
She smiled.
Don’t you hate when that happens? She asked as if she really understood.
I sure do, I said, especially when they are such a good price!

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me.  If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” Then the Philistine said, “This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other.” On hearing the Philistine’s words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified...

Early in the morning David left the flock in the care of a shepherd, loaded up and set out, as Jesse had directed. He reached the camp as the army was going out to its battle positions, shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines were drawing up their lines facing each other. David left his things with the keeper of supplies, ran to the battle lines and asked his brothers how they were.  As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it. Whenever the Israelites saw the man, they all fled from him in great fear…

David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.” But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.” Then Saul dressed David in his own tunic. He put a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. “I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.” So he took them off. Then he took his staff in his hand, chose five smooth stones from the stream, put them in the pouch of his shepherd’s bag and, with his sling in his hand, approached the Philistine. (1 Samuel 17: 8-11; 20-24; 32-40)

Goliath came out and taunted the Israelites every day.
The Israelites were terrified of him.
Anyone who slew Goliath would be greatly rewarded by King Saul.
Even with such motivation, no Israelite was able to slay him.

Young David, a shepherd boy, said that he would kill Goliath.
King Saul thought that was impossible.
Goliath was a trained warrior.
David was just a boy.

David knew that he could kill Goliath much like he killed the predators of his sheep.
King Saul dressed David in his armor and helmet.
They were far too big for him.
David could not move around in them.

“I cannot go in these,” he said to Saul, “because I am not used to them.”
This was not David’s style.
Saul’s armor was not something David was used to wearing.
Saul’s armor looked better on the hanger.

David knew he could kill Goliath because Goliath defied the living God.
David was fighting with God and knew that God was with him.
Goliath was fighting against God.
That was fatal to Goliath, as one of David’s smooth stones stuck Goliath in the forehead.

As I stood at the register, returning my dresses, I thought of David.
I smiled to myself.
I understood.
Some things look better on the hanger.