A Wardrobe Change
By Shauna Leis
“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator…Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”
Colossians 3:9-10, 12
Spring is such an amazing time of year - trees budding new leaves, flowers bursting forth new blooms, and grass renewing itself. Even my children seem to have grown and been renewed. It is so amazing to me how much Nathan and Grace change from year to year, including their height and feet growth.
So, with the coming spring, I decided a couple of weekends ago to tackle the unending growth of…..the closets! I spent one whole Saturday going through every article found in each of the closets. Nathan’s was first. None of the shoes in there still fit, especially the sandals from last summer. His shorts were okay around the waist, but many of them were way too short on his legs. Many of his T-shirts looked like they had been dried on high heat several times in a row. Grace’s was not much different from Nathan’s with too small shoes, T-shirts, and shorts. Her dresses were also showing a bit too much leg for my taste. Finally I went into my own and started pulling out old maternity clothes, sweaters from high school, and quite a few other articles that were probably popular around 15 years ago.
What we all needed was a wardrobe change. I could have just stopped there and removed the old stuff from the closet, but that would have left gaping holes in the outfits that my children and I were required to wear outside of the home. Instead, I had to go out shopping after removing the old stuff to get items that they could actually wear – new shorts, new T-shirts, new dresses, and new shoes.
Precious friends, may I challenge each of you to a spiritual wardrobe change - not just cleaning out the old things, but replacing the old things with new things that will now fit. Read the passages with me above again and notice the similarities. First, Paul tells the people at Colosse that they must remove their old selves – in verse 8 things like anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language. Just as in my wardrobe, we had to get rid of the old clothes to make enough room for the new ones. Then, Paul tells the people to clothe themselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. So, the people were to take off anger and replace it with compassion, and to take off rage and replace it with kindness. Now that is one very serious wardrobe change for the people at Colosse. The people would never again be the same with their new selves.
Just like the Colossians, Jesus wants us to rid ourselves of the old, unhealthy, and sinful lifestyles, replacing them with lifestyles that show everyone else that we belong to the one and only God. Remember when I talked about some of the things in my closet that were just plain out of style? Well, sometimes we need to get rid of the things in our lives that are spiritually out of style, too. There are times that our exteriors indicate we are everything except a child of the Most High God. We need to ensure that our spiritual fashion sense shows the world that we belong to Jesus. Dear Ones, I hope that today you will trust your wardrobe change to God Himself, to become exactly like what He wants us to be.
Pray with me: Precious God, we know that there are things in our lives that need to be eliminated from our spiritual wardrobes. Help us as we take inventory to ensure that as we take out the old, sinful ways that we replace them with things of You so that there are no gaping holes waiting to be filled back in with things that do not honor You. Lord, You are truly all that we ever need. We pray all of this in the precious name of Your Son Jesus Christ!