Deck More Than the Halls

(Proverbs 7:16 KJV)  I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

This is the only place in the Bible that the Hebrew word translated “decked” (spread NASB) (7234) is used.  That would not be obvious if you simply looked it up in a concordance.  There are several other words translated that way but they have different meanings from “anointed” to “broken apart.”  You have possibly heard this meaning recently if you have sung the Christmas carol, “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly”.  We also might express it when dressing up and being “all decked out”.

The concern I pick up is the tendency we have to cover things up with cosmetics.  When you go to a pharmacy, a place for healing medicine, you find that a large part of the store is dedicated to products to remedy superficial flaws.  You can find fixes designed to disguise your fingernails, split ends and everything in between.  You can find ways to change your smell and shape.  None of them do anything to change the real you.

We cannot cover up who we really are with thin coatings of man made products.  This is true whether you are talking about cosmetics or the latest seminar you went to by the current guru.   Only God can change the inner you that is causing the problems.

So?  Deck your halls with ivy.  Cleanse your heart with the blood of the Lamb.  Remember that Christmas was necessary for the cross to be offered.  Make it an inner Christmas.