The holiday’s are here! Families, if able, will gather together for a big Thanksgiving Day feast. In my mind I am picturing the festive outfits which will be adorned as part of the celebration. There are some who have put forth a great effort to find the perfect outfit. Isn’t funny the emphasis our culture places on “how to dress” regardless of the situation? I can’t think of one person who will wake up in the morning and say “I don’t care what I look like”. Do you realize Amazon.com places books on “how to dress” in at least 10 different categories?
Recently I had a humbling experience on how to dress. One of the categories from Amazon.com is “how to dress according to body type”. On my way to Greenville to attend a high school football game with Meghan I decided that blue jeans would be preferable to the warm-up pants I had on. The Columbiana Mall has a Sears store and I knew Sears carries my favorite brand of jeans (Levi’s). It did not take long to locate the department where the jeans were located. I was looking for a specific style. If anyone has shopped for jeans as of late the different styles can leave one searching for hours to find the perfect style. I went into the store looking for a specific style. Straight leg jeans are ok but I wanted boot cut jeans. After an hour of scouring the racks some boot cut jeans were discovered. They looked a little different but nothing out of the norm. Found my size but decided to try the jeans on. Putting them on, my first thought was “I don’t remember Levi’s being cut this slim”. It took a few minutes but I squeezed into this pair of jeans. Of course the standard question comes to mind as I wondered if these made my butt look too big {chuckling}. In a crunch the jeans would work but something was not right. Upon further inspection I noticed these were skinny jeans. Staring at myself in the changing room mirror while wearing these jeans it was evident that the world, much less those who know me, was not ready to see me wearing skinny jeans. Can’t honestly say I was ready to see myself in those jeans. Needless to say normal boot cut jeans were finally purchased in another store in the mall.
All in all I wasted valuable time while looking for clothes I felt would make me look my best. We were late getting to the game. In the Sermon on the Mount part of what Jesus teaches is we should not worry about what to wear. When worry invades our hearts and minds time is wasted as a solution to the problem is sought. Our focus becomes inward as we see only part of the picture instead of the whole picture. Through out Scripture God has never abandoned humanity. Humanity has abandoned God thinking it knows best. If only I had been satisfied with what I was wearing more time would have been spent with Meghan and Jackson. They are by far and away more precious than a pair of jeans that make me feel good about myself.
What is your deepest hope this Christmas? How can we share the hope we find in Christ with others? Advent is a time of preparation to receive God’s gift of love revealed in Jesus. Rather than worry about how our butts look or what outfit makes us look best maybe we might place our trust in God to take care of our needs and desires. Another way might be by avoiding internal solutions to our worries grounded in our finite understanding but seeking God’s kingdom first. Doesn’t God know us better than we know ourselves? Placing trust in God enables us to see the big picture. The needs of others, including our community, are made known. Now we are able to be dressed in clothes, which make us look our very best. No longer is time being wasted while looking for the perfect outfit. Through us, the church, the message hope of in Jesus Christ can be revealed to a world wanting to be adorned in the finest clothes.
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