Ambush Makeover

Kathie Lee and Hoda are geniuses. Well, maybe not Kathie Lee and Hoda but someone working on their team deserves the accolade for the creation of "Ambush Makeover." Once a week a special segment runs featuring two fans devoid of fashion from the on-street audience. The fans (always women) are plucked from the crowd and swept away and into the hands of celebrity stylists and designers. In the matter of hours these women go from wearing Mom jeans, no make up and glaring roots to being ready for the runway.
Near the end of the morning show the segment begins with what occurred earlier that morning, the ambush. The crowd is scanned and two women are chosen. There is always much squealing involved. Family members and friends in attendance are interviewed. "Why does you Mom deserve this makeover?" Of course, every Mom is the most selfless, generous Mom on the planet and deserves star treatment. It is a perpetual Mother's Day on Ambush Makeover.
From there the camera shoots back to the woman being swept away into a sea of hair shears, coloring foils, mascara and vanishing line creams.
Finally, we come back to the present moment, the moment of truth. The family is blindfolded. A big full length mirror is in position. The designers are seated, prepared to give an account of the makeover specifics. Then, the women enters.
Could that possibly be the same women pulled from the audience? I nearly always ask myself. The transformation is remarkable. No plastic surgery; no new nose; no liposuction. The woman is essentially the same as before, only now she is fulfilling her full potential.
This idea of ambush makeover is unique to NBC's morning show and certainly an ingenious segment for entertainment value but a transformational ambush is actually an age old practice. Ambush makeovers predate morning TV or TV at all. God has been in the business of performing ambush makeovers for as long as man has walked this earth. Just go back to the book of Acts and Saul on the road to Damascus. Talk about an ambush! He was just walking along, minding his own sinful business when, boom! An ambush.
When Saul came out for his big reveal he was no longer Saul and he was no longer a persecutor. His transformation made Ambush Makeover look like child's play. To the outside world Paul looked the same - no new nose or change of facial structure. But the man inside was completely new. God got hold of him and made him into the shining figure of the man Saul was meant to be.
Right now you may be wearing mom jeans or you may be wearing a five hundred dollar pair of designer slacks, either way a makeover may be in order. God is scanning His kingdom in search of the next man or woman He is going to pluck from the crowd and transform. He looks with His eyes on the soul of man, as 1 Samuel 16:7 says, "The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." He is looking for heart's that need to be made over into the image of Christ. 
God's work of transformation can be done in an instant if the ambushed soul is willing to submit to the hand of the Master. On NBC's Ambush Makeover the women willingly allow hair stylists to pick their new hair color, cut and style. They leave the choice and application of makeup to the professionals and turn to designers and stylists for clothing choices and accessory pairing. Every decision is out of the hands of the ambushed. They are a surrendered canvas in the hands of the stylish, creative professionals who are eager to work their magic! 
God is eager, ready and willing to do a marvelous work on you and me by way of transformation. He has the best wardrobe to choose from and He wants to dress you and me in the garments of His love, grace and mercy. 
Will you allow yourself to be ambushed? God will never force your hand. It is a matter of your will. But He will ask. Just like those women in the crowd are approached with a microphone and a camera crew, God will come before you with an offer. "Will you give up total control to be totally transformed?" 
An ambush makeover can be yours if you will willingly say, "yes."