Put Them on Display
“The kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old." - Matthew 13:52
Not so much now, but until recent years, I had a rather unusual shape. I was, and still am, tall, skinny, and somewhat lanky. While I have never been too concerned about my appearance or how I looked, I found it somewhat hard to find clothes that fit. A few years ago, my waist size was 28 inches round, and my leg size was, as it is now, 34 inches long. Do you know how hard it is to find pants that size? The young men’s departments don’t have those pants because the legs are too long, and the menswear departments don’t have them because the waist is too thin! I know as discrimination goes, discrimination against skinning people is pretty low on the totem pole… but it always felt somewhat awkward to me to find pants that fit.
When shopping for pants, I would spend what seemed like hours scanning through every pair on display because it was hard to find some that would fit. I would sort through the piles, looking for the tab… only to be disappointed that they hadn’t cut the cloth in a way that fitted my unusually extended lower body.
I often had to ask the lovely sales assistant if she had the right dimensioned pants for my freakishly odd shape. Inevitably, she would shout out my dimensions across the store so all could hear… “Do we have any weirdo sizes in the backroom?" As time progressed, I stopped asking if they had my size, and I celebrated wildly the dawn of Internet shopping.
One day, I remember being at the outlet malls outside St Augustine. I needed some jeans in the Timberland store (which I considered a relatively cool store to buy jeans from). I found some jeans with the cut I was looking for, in the color I cared for, with the style I wanted to strut. So my search for the correct size began… There was a whole stack of them, but I could not find any of my size as the minutes passed. I liked these jeans; I was desperate, my hopes were building, and perhaps I could become cool!?!
So boldly, I approached the sales girl who launched right into the spiel I had heard a thousand times before…. “I am not sure we carry that size! 28 waists only go up to 32 lengths. Thirty-four lengths only go down to 30 waists.” I politely asked her if she could go and look in the back room for me. She reluctantly did and returned with five pairs of the size I was looking for! I was so thrilled; I bought three pairs of them!!
As I walked to the counter to pay, I realized that I had spent 45 minutes in the store—an eternity in ‘man shopping’ time. This shopping experience could have been so much better if the store had put these prized-sized jeans on display instead of hiding them in the store room.
Jesus says - “The kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."
We must display our new treasure in Jesus. We must put it on the shop floor and share this ‘new’ life that we have found. In a marketplace of religions where people are trying to find what they think they are looking for, we must not hide the one right answer in the back storage rooms of our lives.
There are probably thousands of people who walk past our churches each year, peer in, and continue walking because we display the old life, not the new life of Christ.
· We let them see our old rather than His new.
· They see our brokenness rather than his healing.
· They see our bickering rather than his brightness.
· They see our manipulation rather than his miracles.
I would say to the clothing store owners, ‘Put your right-sized jeans in the shop window.’
To Jesus' followers, I would say put Christ's life, hope, care, compassion, and love front and center in your life.
If you’ve got a new car, don’t keep it in the garage.
If you’ve got a new dress, don’t keep it in the wardrobe.
If you’ve got a new life, let it shine.
Display Jesus.
Not so much now, but until recent years, I had a rather unusual shape. I was, and still am, tall, skinny, and somewhat lanky. While I have never been too concerned about my appearance or how I looked, I found it somewhat hard to find clothes that fit. A few years ago, my waist size was 28 inches round, and my leg size was, as it is now, 34 inches long. Do you know how hard it is to find pants that size? The young men’s departments don’t have those pants because the legs are too long, and the menswear departments don’t have them because the waist is too thin! I know as discrimination goes, discrimination against skinning people is pretty low on the totem pole… but it always felt somewhat awkward to me to find pants that fit.
When shopping for pants, I would spend what seemed like hours scanning through every pair on display because it was hard to find some that would fit. I would sort through the piles, looking for the tab… only to be disappointed that they hadn’t cut the cloth in a way that fitted my unusually extended lower body.
I often had to ask the lovely sales assistant if she had the right dimensioned pants for my freakishly odd shape. Inevitably, she would shout out my dimensions across the store so all could hear… “Do we have any weirdo sizes in the backroom?" As time progressed, I stopped asking if they had my size, and I celebrated wildly the dawn of Internet shopping.
One day, I remember being at the outlet malls outside St Augustine. I needed some jeans in the Timberland store (which I considered a relatively cool store to buy jeans from). I found some jeans with the cut I was looking for, in the color I cared for, with the style I wanted to strut. So my search for the correct size began… There was a whole stack of them, but I could not find any of my size as the minutes passed. I liked these jeans; I was desperate, my hopes were building, and perhaps I could become cool!?!
So boldly, I approached the sales girl who launched right into the spiel I had heard a thousand times before…. “I am not sure we carry that size! 28 waists only go up to 32 lengths. Thirty-four lengths only go down to 30 waists.” I politely asked her if she could go and look in the back room for me. She reluctantly did and returned with five pairs of the size I was looking for! I was so thrilled; I bought three pairs of them!!
As I walked to the counter to pay, I realized that I had spent 45 minutes in the store—an eternity in ‘man shopping’ time. This shopping experience could have been so much better if the store had put these prized-sized jeans on display instead of hiding them in the store room.
Jesus says - “The kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."
We must display our new treasure in Jesus. We must put it on the shop floor and share this ‘new’ life that we have found. In a marketplace of religions where people are trying to find what they think they are looking for, we must not hide the one right answer in the back storage rooms of our lives.
There are probably thousands of people who walk past our churches each year, peer in, and continue walking because we display the old life, not the new life of Christ.
· We let them see our old rather than His new.
· They see our brokenness rather than his healing.
· They see our bickering rather than his brightness.
· They see our manipulation rather than his miracles.
I would say to the clothing store owners, ‘Put your right-sized jeans in the shop window.’
To Jesus' followers, I would say put Christ's life, hope, care, compassion, and love front and center in your life.
If you’ve got a new car, don’t keep it in the garage.
If you’ve got a new dress, don’t keep it in the wardrobe.
If you’ve got a new life, let it shine.
Display Jesus.
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