And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin. . . . But if God so clothes the grass of the field, . . . will he not much more clothe you? (Matthew 6)Lilies remind us of God taking care of all of our needs. Let's look a little deeper at why God clothes us. Genesis 2:25 tells us that Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed. A mere seven verses later: Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew they were naked. We all know what earth-shattering event took place in the six verses between. Shame entered the world on the heels of the first sin. Did anyone ever want a do-over more than those two? And all they could do was sew flimsy leaves together to hide their shame.
Did God leave them in their flimsiness? Did he give them what they deserved? No. In a stunning act of condescension and compassion, after the curses were pronounced, the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)
Why did they, do we, need to be clothed? Because we are covered in shame from head to toe and all points in between. Psalm 53:3: They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one. Isn't that a sad verse?
But we are not left naked in our shame. We have been clothed. We wear the robes of righteousness that Jesus bought for us at the cross. He took our shame; it is gone, it is finished. So be not anxious about your clothing. God has clothed you, as surely as the father of the prodigal ran out to meet him with embraces and kisses, followed posthaste by a robe and shoes. Wear those robes with humility and grateful hearts.
