What Are You Wearing?

When I was pregnant with my second child, my son was about three-and-a-half years old. And you know what they say about kids that age… “Inquiring minds want to know.” Right?

Karson had all kinds of questions about the baby that was soon to be joining our family. One day he asked me what kind of clothes the baby was wearing inside my belly. I smiled and told him that actually the baby didn’t have any clothes on at all.

“You mean she’s neck-ed!?!?” Karson exclaimed.

And when I confirmed that yes, she was in fact naked, he erupted into hysterical laughter. Apparently, when you’re a three-year-old boy, this is very funny stuff.

Karson went on to tell several people over the following months that we had a baby in the family that wasn’t wearing anything. Most of the time this was funny… and a few times a little awkward.

Our baby was coming into this world with nothing. Not a piece of clothing or material possession to her name. And she wasn’t the first to do so.

This reminds me of Job 1:21,

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

When do we start to forget this? Or perhaps the better question is, why don’t we try to remember it?

Somewhere in life we start to believe that our material possessions define our worth. We forget that life is about praising the name of the Lord, and we start to think it’s all about us. We want more. We feel we need certain things and perhaps think we even deserve them. We become discontent.

Contentment seems to be a hard thing for many of us to grasp. Maybe we get a grip on it momentarily, but then there it goes, fleeing quickly and leaving us wanting more.

Contentment equals godliness. That’s a pretty big deal.

Paul speaks of this when he is writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:6-11:

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”

And Paul knew what he was talking about. He had found the secret to contentment. He said so himself in Philippians 4:12-13:

“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Christ gives us strength. It is through him that we are satisfied. It is through Christ that we find true contentment. Every other blessing and thing we are given on this earth is just a bonus.

Let’s face it. We all entered this world “neck-ed” as could be. Maybe we need to be reminded of that.

But what are we wearing today?

May we learn to clothe ourselves with Christ’s strength as we pursue true contentment.

And actual clothes aren’t a bad idea either.