“Don’t be anxious from morning to evening and from evening to morning, about what you will wear.” – The Gospel of Thomas
My Friends and Neighbors,
If you open the pages of the magazines of today, you’ll see page after page of “New Looks” and “Spring Fashions.” We are told that to be a person of substance, we must have the crispest collar, the finest suit, and the most fashionable hat. We’ve become a community of workers and homemakers who spend an awful lot of time standing in front of the mirror, adjusting our ties and smoothing our skirts.
But I want to share a piece of timeless wisdom that is far more durable than any fabric found at Anderson’s General Store. The word tells us: “Don’t be anxious from morning to evening and from evening to morning, about what you will wear.”
Now, isn’t that a striking thought? To be “anxious from morning to evening.” That is a heavy burden to carry. It’s like carrying a sack filled with lead pipes. We wake up wondering if we look the part for the office, and we go to bed fretting over whether we’ll have the means to keep up with our neighbors tomorrow.
When we fret over our garments, we are essentially saying that our worth is something we put on in the morning and take off at night. But the Divine does not look at the label on the inside of your coat. The Divine is interested in the quality of the soul that inhabits the suit.
Think for a moment of the natural world that the Divine has created. Consider the wild flowers that bloom in the meadows beyond our town limits. They don’t have sewing machines. They don’t have charge accounts at the local tailor. And yet, the sheer elegance of their petals puts our finest Sunday silk to shame.
If the Divine provides such exquisite care for a flower that is here today and gone tomorrow, how much more care is extended to you? To worry about our “outer shell” is to doubt the very providence that keeps our hearts beating and the planets in their orbits.
Let us consider the “attire” that actually matters:
The Cloak of Kindness: Which never goes out of style.
The Shoes of Peace: Which carry us through the roughest terrain.
The Girdle of Truth: Which holds a life together when the winds of adversity blow.
When we stop pacing the floor at midnight worrying about our social standing or our physical appearance, we finally clear enough space in our minds to hear the quiet voice of the Divine.
As you step out your front door and back into the hustle and bustle of the work week, take a deep breath. Look at the sky. Look at the trees. Remember that you are a child of the Divine. Your value is not woven into your sleeves. It is etched into your eternal spirit.
Go home. Sit out on your front porch, and be at rest. For the Divine who clothed the world in such splendor has certainly not forgotten you.
Amen.
