Wednesday, February 5, 2020
“You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God.” (1 Peter 3:4, New Living Translation)


                The old saying goes “clothes make the man,” or in this case, clothes make the baby.

                Recently, we received photos of our three newest grandchildren all wearing clothes given to them by us, their grandparents. On the same day, no less. The moms didn’t plan that way, but they all went on to express their appreciation for us as grandparents.

                There is nothing that Susan enjoys more than buying clothes for our grandkids. Now that she has two granddaughters, look out!

                A baby is going to look adorable in just about anything, even just a diaper. But clothe them in clothes with polka dots or dinosaurs or onesies with funny sayings or frilly little dresses or little shirts decorated with sports equipment and it’s game-on for cuteness. Just ask any proud grandparent.

                Do they still do the best-dressed and worst-dressed celebrities of the year? (I don’t know and really don’t care; not even mildly curious.) It amuses me though to catch the headlines after some sort of award show like the Oscars or Emmys and how the fashion  critics fiercely  rate what the celebrities wore or tried to pull off as a wardrobe feature. Some of the clothes border on the outlandish and peculiar but if that is what the “star” chooses to wear out in public, who am I to judge?

                Give me babies any day of the year! Far superior! Nor do they really care what they are wearing or whether anybody else even notices. It is only going to have to be changed twenty minutes later anyway, after some “accident” warrants and demands a new set of duds. Talk about a wardrobe malfunction.

                I suppose clothes for adults, at least, tend to make a statement about self-image. Clothes can speak about a person’s poverty or prosperity.  Clothes can be an indicator of a person’s personality, whether, for example, a person has a flamboyant and creative streak or has a more conservative and conformist style.

Long gone are the days that many folk will bother to dress up in their Sunday-best to go to church. Even pastors have gone for the casual, folksy style from the pulpit. Remember back when women wore hats and white gloves? I remember at the end of my times as a pastor that it was not all that uncommon for some guests showing up at weddings only in T-shirts, shorts and sandals. Even the dress code for funerals is much more relaxed than it used to be.

I am not really pining for the old days of stuffy formality. We should not be judging people by what they wear, especially to church. I use to have some senior men get quite upset with young lads who wore their ball caps into the service and could be quite rude and therefore unwelcoming by telling them curtly to remove those hats.  I get it; I would prefer that they don’t wear their hats either in church but I’d much rather celebrate the fact that young people are in church and showing interest in Jesus. I’ll worry about the hats later, if at all.

The point is that clothes are not the end statement about who a person is or what is in their heart and spirit. Real beauty, unfading beauty, lasting beauty, as the text above indicates, comes from within a person’s soul and heart.

“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.” (Colossians 3:12, The Message Bible)

That ain’t none too shabby! 

Dale