Anyone who knows me well, knows I
have a favorite old shirt. It’s less than perfect, to say the least, but it is
my favorite shirt ever. I have had this shirt since high school, but I honestly
cannot remember how this wonderful, soft, warm, red flannel shirt came to be
all mine! I love this shirt so much that
I wear it almost every day throughout the cold months, sometimes even in the
warmer months. I usually only take it off long enough to wash it. Have I
mentioned I love this shirt, it’s my most favorite shirt in the whole world? To
most it looks more like a rag for washing the car than a shirt for keeping warm. My
family is often telling me to throw it away, it has holes that I have mended,
tears that I have sown, and it is wearing thin in many spots. But it is still
my favorite shirt, I want to keep it. My husband and mother insist on wanting
to buy me a new one, but I don’t want a new one. I don’t want three new ones! I
would prefer to keep mending this one. Why? Because it is my favorite shirt,
because it serves its purpose in my life. Despite its age and condition it
keeps me comfy and warm, what else is there?
As usual a few mornings ago I was
wearing my favorite shirt. I was having my morning reading and prayer time in
my room, door shut with worship music playing. I have been praying adamantly
for a while for answers to a particular situation in my life. I am diligently
seeking guidance, courage to overcome fears, increasing faith for limited
abilities I feel I suffer from in my humanness. Wisdom to interpret these answers
I think I am hearing. I’m quite certain doubt was attempting to make its
presence known, when God, of course, intervened. It was just as my questioning
was about to ensue, when I felt God propose the question, “What about your shirt?”
It happened so suddenly I completely lost sight of my questions and immediately
began answering the question presented to me. I gripped my shirt tightly and
began to think. “Because it’s mine, it keeps me warm, I don’t care what it
looks like or how old it is, it serves its purpose for me, no other shirt will
do and well, silly as it sounds, I love
this shirt.” As quickly as I answered, I knew what God was trying to tell me. All my whys,
hows, whens, etcs., just stopped as I held tight to my old shirt
thinking and listening to the voice of My Shepherd. “Because you are mine, I do
not care what you look like, how old you are or what you have been through, My
grace is sufficient, you are perfect for the purpose for which I created you,
no one else will do and I too love you.”
Okay, you might be thinking, it’s
just a shirt, but God knows how to get His point across and how to impact us in
a way that is so indescribably perfect for where we are. So from now on every time I wear this shirt,
which is almost daily, I hope to recall this lesson, these words God has spoken
to me. I pray that I will work diligently for the purpose He has set in my
heart, even when I grow weary of the research, the long hours, the dead ends that
I will remember just as I could never give up on an old worn out shirt, God can
never give up on me.
