What are you wearing today?
Twelve-year-old David Whitthoft made wardrobe selection easy for 4 years. He simply wore the same Green Bay Packers jersey for 1,581 days. Moms, that’s not quite as bad as it first sounds. David’s mother did wash it every other evening.
The jersey was a Christmas gift in 2003, and David wore it religiously every day until his 12th birthday in 2008. He finally gave up the shirt, not because he no longer liked it; he just outgrew it. When it no longer reached his pants, he agreed to give it up.
David was obviously proud of that jersey. Maybe he was particularly proud that it sported the number 4 on it – the number of quarterback Brett Favre. It’s not unusual for a kid (or adult) to enjoy wearing his hero’s number.
Perhaps that’s why God’s fashion instructions for us make sense. “Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ,” he tells us (Romans 13:14). Wear your hero proudly!
To “wear a person” seems odd. But it makes sense that, if we admire Jesus, we should want to look like him – to be like him. That’s really what the word “Christian” means isn’t it – someone trying to be like Christ? That’s what a “disciple” is: someone who accepts the training of the one he follows.
Those who believe in Jesus and are baptized, Paul says “have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27). But we don’t get dressed only once; it’s a daily process. Paul also wrote that we must “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Colossians 3:12). Isn’t that the same as being clothed with Christ?
Every day for 4 years, David Whitthoft proudly put on his Favre jersey. Every day of our Christian lives, we should be honored to be clothed with Jesus. Not just to claim the name, but to put on Jesus’ traits of love, humility, kindness, gentleness, and patience.
It’s easy sometimes to forget to wear our uniform – to leave my kindness at home or to wear my patience thin and fail to mend it. But we would be horrified to leave home without some of our clothes. (Have you had that nightmare?)
Let’s check the spiritual mirror, too, to make sure we’re fully dressed. If you’re missing something, the good news is you don’t have to go home to change.