“For he has clothed me” (Isaiah 61:10)
They say that clothes make a person. That may be true. We seem to choose clothes we not only like, but also say something about who we are. But there is a man in the bible who had very little choice in what he wore. He never got to go shopping for his clothes. Never picked out what he wanted to wear in the morning. Never had a walk-in closet. His name was Joseph. The Old Testament Joseph. When he was born, he was wrapped in a woolen shall, perhaps several of them. As a child, he wore a tunic that had no seams. Then in his teenage years, his father made him a robe of many colors, a long-sleeved tunic that reached down to the feet. Probably made from strips of fabric dyed bright reds, blues, and yellows. Jacob made this robe for Joseph because he favored Joseph more than his other sons. You know the story. His brothers were jealous of their father’s favor toward Joseph, so they stripped Joseph of the robe and sold him into slavery. Then poor Joey ended up working in the home of a man named Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife unrobbed him of his servant’s tunic as he fled her advances. That landed him in prison where, you guessed it, he got clothes inmates wore. But by God’s grace, he ended up in Pharaoh’s palace, where he was given garments of fine linen. All his life, Joseph was dressed by everyone else. But never got to decide what he wanted to wear. Now you know why he never had a walk-in closet.
Ever stop to think about what type of garments you wear? As babies, our mothers dressed us in onesies. Then as children they picked out our clothes for school. As teenagers, our parents yelled at us for trying to sneak out of the house in, “you’re not wearing that, are you? Go back to your room and change.” Finally, when we left home, we got the privilege of choosing what WE wanted to wear. We discovered what our style was. What we liked and didn’t like. What we felt comfortable in. But then, people around us started trying to dress us. They wrapped us in verbal garments that put labels on us we neither wanted nor deserved. Clothes written with words like stupid, not as good as others are, can’t do anything right. Not pretty enough, too fat, too skinny, too tall. Sad part is, we have worn these garments, believing these are the only clothes we fit into. We have easily become wrapped up in tunics made from the lies of other people.
But Jesus Christ wants to clothe us is garments of truth. Garments that tell us we are special, we are loved, we are precious to him. And then John wrote in Revelation that one day Jesus Christ is going to give each of us the one permanent garment that we deserve. It is a robe of finest pure white linen. No longer will we wear the soiled tattered garments others want to put on us. Garments smudged with disrespectful, derogatory, belittling names embellished on them. No, these robes will be perfect. They will be white, and they will be spotless. And we won’t need a walk-in closet to hang them because these robes will be permanent. All because Jesus Christ will clothe us with the perfect robes that he has prepared for us.
Darlene
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