What to Wear


What to Wear

Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Matthew 6:25

This morning while I was getting ready for work, I was saying to myself, what to wear, what to wear and this verse popped into my head. The first thing I thought was that if I had given it a little more concern last night, I wouldn’t be wasting precious morning minutes on it. Then something a little more weighty crossed my mind.
There I was standing in front of my “main” closet, the one in which I keep the clothes appropriate for the current weather. Keep in mind these aren’t designer anybody clothes. It’s pretty much store brand, what was on sale and I had a coupon stuff but still, I have plenty of choices. So there I stood, taking into account the weather outside, the temperature in our classroom and what I had going on during the day. As I gazed at pants, tops, dresses, a question occurred to me.

How much thought could really have gone into the clothes of Jesus’ day? Think about it. Wasn’t it pretty much all the same? Some sort of tunic, an outer dress and something over their heads. There is mention of cloaks in the Bible too, so I guess during cold weather a cloak. Still, there weren’t department stores on every corner and many of  those women were pretty busy cooking without any appliances or even much in the line of utensils. Not to mention, raising and teaching their children.

I thought about that for a minute. Jesus found it important enough to mention, to admonish in a time when the clothing choices were pretty limited. What, I wonder, does he think of me, of us, and the amount of time we spend thinking about clothes, shopping for clothes, complaining about clothes? I felt a little tug of guilt which I wisely chose to ignore, opting instead to be thankful for my many alternatives and I moved on, or so I thought.

As I continued through my day I was a bit more aware of the things that take up space in my mind. What to wear? What to cook? What do I have to do after work? Is my house ready for my Bible study group? Will certain family issues ever resolve? Has my mom found some respite help for my aunt? Did I remember to refill the snack section in my husband’s lunchbox? Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. YIPES!
Suddenly the caution not to worry about food, clothes and the like took on a clearer meaning. I often think it would have been nice in some ways to live in the time of Jesus when things were simpler and there were less distractions. Now I wonder, does it matter? Is it an issue of variety or do we simply obsess about ourselves regardless of era?  Jesus, who wastes nothing, including words and efforts, chose to speak about this very issue, so it must be pretty important. It made me want to write my own version of the Serenity Prayer,

Dear Lord, grant me the wisdom to turn my mind to you,
To ignore the mundane in favor of the sacred,
To receive the grace you set before me
And always to be truly grateful. Amen.  

 

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