What Are You Wearing?featured

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another.  Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”  Colossians 3: 12-14

Recently I was packing for a two-week vacation and I spent a great deal of time planning my wardrobe for the trip.  I laid out various tops, pants, dresses, and jackets on the bed.  I experimented with various combinations of items, thinking about day and evening options.  I evaluated what shoes would work with the various outfits.  I picked out necklaces, bracelets and earrings to coordinate with my choices.  All of this wardrobe preparation took the better part of an afternoon and then I had to pack it all and see if I was under the airline weight limit! 

I read the verse above when I returned from my vacation and I thought about how much effort I had put into my wardrobe for the trip.  Not only did I spend a lot of time preparing, but while vacationing, at least twice a day, I was in front of my closet, working out what I would wear for the next few hours.  That is a lot of time spent thinking about clothes!  Embarrassingly, I am just about as bad about it when I am not on vacation.

It occurred to me that perhaps I should be spending at least as much time preparing for and thinking about the spiritual clothing I should wear each day.  As believers, we can shed our old, dirty and tattered clothes; garments like pride, envy, hate, bitterness, worry, and fear.  As new creations, God wants us to put on new outfits. 

Now I love new outfits but sometimes I save them for special occasions instead of wearing them every day.  For my routine days, I often grab the same old things to wear.  They are way past their prime and they don’t make me look too great, but I have grown comfortable with them.  It’s the same with my spiritual clothes, I keep putting those ugly old things on!

God has given us a beautiful new outfit that He wants us to wear every day.  It’s a layered look!  It includes compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness.  God even gives us a “signature piece,” love, that brings the whole outfit together (v. 14).  He is the ultimate stylist!  If we choose to put on these clothes (with the help of the Holy Spirit), then we begin to look more and more like Christ.   

The reality is that like planning my trip wardrobe, wearing our new spiritual clothes takes some effort.  We need His help to put on the new clothes and keep them on!  Spending time in His Word and in prayer helps us get “dressed” in our new clothes and enables us to pack a “spiritual backpack” with a few extras.  Now many days I start out in my beautiful new clothes but then something challenging occurs and I shed those new clothes and put on my ugly ones.  If I am prepared, I am more likely to choose to send up a quick prayer asking the Holy Spirit to help me use the clothes in my backpack rather continuing on in my dirty rags!

When I painted this painting, I didn’t have this verse in mind.  I painted it for a friend who had family members who flooded as the result of Hurricane Harvey here in Houston.  Although she didn’t flood, her life was completely overwhelmed with helping her family through this crisis.  As we reached the 1-year anniversary of the Hurricane, I gave her this painting and put this verse on the back.  She put on her beautiful new clothes as she helped her family muck out their homes and put their priorities and needs above her own for the past year.  Did she do this perfectly – no.  None of us will ever accomplish this perfectly, but she was an example to me of consistently choosing to wear those beautiful new clothes.  I pray that you and I will do the same! [jetpack_subscription_form]