As
many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ.
Galatians
3:27
In January, my sister said
“yes” to the dress. She tried on a number of beautiful wedding
gowns, and narrowed it down to two options. For hours she couldn’t
decide between the two. She’d switch in and out of them, walk
around in front of the mirrors, text friends and family members for
input and advice. It turned out that neither of them was the right
dress. She finally went back to a dress she’d put back for some
reason, and when she tried it on again, it was just right. She not
only looked beautiful (as she had in all the dresses), but she felt
like herself. She felt confident and beautiful just with the way she
was.
I think this kind of feeling is
what the apostle Paul is talking about when he says that we have
clothed ourselves with Christ. Being clothed with Christ is that
sense of being fully the amazing, beautiful, wondrous person God
created us to be.
We spend our lives trying on
different “clothes,” different identities and ways we want people
to see us. We clothe ourselves with friends, jobs, possessions,
sports teams, colleges. We put on appearances of happiness,
importance, achievement. But sometimes we walk through our lives and
look in the mirror and realize that, while we may look good, while
our appearance might be attractive, it just isn’t me. There is just
something that is not quite right. We may not even be able to name
exactly what it is. But these clothes do not make us feel confident
and beautiful just the way we are.
So perhaps Lent is as good a
time as any to try going back again and clothing ourselves with
Christ. The Lenten season invites us to take off all those other
trappings and remember our baptismal identity as beloved children of
a gracious God. And in doing this, we can walk through our lives, and
look at ourselves in the mirror and see reflected there nothing short
of the image of God. And when we see this, all we can say is, “yes.”
Loving God, you created each
of us uniquely in your image and you love us endlessly. Help us to
clothe ourselves in Christ so that we may see your beauty and wonder
reflected in us and in our lives. Amen.
Rev. Amy Morgan
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