BE-Gratitudes: 30 Days of Positive Attitudes – Clothed
November 11th, 2021
Day Eleven: CLOTHED
Colossians 3:9-14, ‘Don’t lie to one another. You’re done with that old life. It’s like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you’ve stripped off and put in the fire. Now you’re dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It’s your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.’ (MSG)
Wear love. What does that even mean?
I think about the father in The Parable of the Prodigal Son. He brought out his own robe and draped it around the shoulders of his returning son. He placed the family insignia ring upon his finger and put sandals upon the tired wandering feet of the son who was once thought dead and now alive, who was lost but now was found. That tells me he wore love that he shed and put on his child. We also find that a woman with a debilitating disease only had to reach out and fondle the hem of Jesus’ garment to be healed, because her faith in the love He wore was so powerful, it had the power to heal. We learn that those who crucified Jesus grappled for His clothing at the foot of the cross, and while they did not understand the magnitude of what they battled over, they witnessed the love that poured from the One Who it would become known was willing to die for their transgressions. Love swaddled the infinite infant Who left a heavenly throne for an earthly grave. That love still wraps around each of us generations later, warms us, provides for us, connects us, gives purpose to our journey, offers us something to share with others, keeps us, cleanses us, clothes us with purpose.
Beautiful You, you too can wear love. When I get up tomorrow, I am going to pull out of my closet, remove from its hanger, draft from my drawers only an outfit that expresses goodness to others. I am going to pull on clothing which speaks kindly and compassionately, fashions of forgiveness, wrapped in a robe of relationship, dressed in self-discipline, a habit of humility, ever ready to give the shirt off my back. I’m going to wear love so that when I give it away, I am giving love to another who might have never been wrapped in love, robed in respect, offered apparel of acceptance. Everyday I’m going to put on a garment of praise and step into a gown of grace because I am grateful that a Holy God loved me enough to hand down to me love to wear and share.
