Two Pair
Matthew 6:25-33
…do not worry about your life, or…what you will wear. v.25
I sent to college before the days when the basic uniform for everyone was a pair of jeans. Though I was far from poor, I did go to college with just two pair of wash and wear, olive green pants. I’m sure I also owned a suit I could wear on Sundays, but the other six days these two pair of pants did me just fine. I would wear one and wash the other without worrying about mixing or matching my shirts and pants.
Fast forward over fifty years. Over the years I have accumulated more than two pair of pants. Because of weight gain and loss, I have at least two sets of different sized pants to choose from. Beyond five pairs of jeans, I find in my closet the pants I used to wear to work: polyester pants, cotton pants, wool pants, blended fabric pants. Some pants are grey, others blue, some brown, tan, taupe, green, and yes, even two pair of olive-green pants. I have accumulated enough pairs to at least go a couple of weeks and never wear the same pants twice.
It takes longer to get dressed these days because I need to match, to some degree, shirt and pants or sweater and pants, or blazer and pants. I need to think about what the occasion might require or what others might wear. Dressing is definitely more complicated than in those college years.
I would like life to be simpler! It certainly can be, but that will require a reminder that I too live in the shadow of the cross. I walk daily in the valley of the shadow of death. I need a reminder that I do live my life in the light of the resurrection, too. I need to remember that the abundant life isn’t found in an abundance of pants or in the abundance of anything. The abundant life is found in a relationship, a working relationship with the God of all things.
The God who clothes me wants to clothe the world. The Jesus who died on the cross and was raised from the dead has a mission to preserve and protect and provide for those whom God loves dearly. Perhaps this is the season I can finally purge my closet and clothe, if not the naked, then anyone who has only one or two pair of pants to their name.
Prayer: O God who clothes the world in beauty, we give thanks for the promise of white robes as your people assemble around your heavenly throne. Help us to see each other as worthy recipients of these robes of glory. In the meantime, we give thanks for thrift shops and those who work in them to robe people in glory here and now. Amen.
Fast: By setting aside a blanket or pillow to give away.
Act: Buy shoes for a children’s clothes closet
OR $1 for Lutheran World Relief projects
...the least of these... 