Recently started to attend a church where attendees dress up
slightly more than I had been used to dressing for services. Once I gave up
wearing suits to churches in the south I relished the idea of casual dress for
church. But change was in the air.
I decided I needed a new pair of dress trousers. I purchased a
pair of navy blue slacks which I thought would match the shirts in my closet.
The only problem with them is that they were several inches too long. It was a
minor detail given the label description – machine washable, no iron, permanent
crease, wrinkle free, virtually indestructible!
Then I read the fine print – fabric was made from recycled
plastic water bottles.
What? I now have all kinds of mental images of dressing up in a
water bottle getup, sloshing about with waterproof pants in the pouring rain
and making crinkle sounds like I’m an empty water bottle being crushed in a
closed fist.
But I then thought about where the discarded bottles had come
from. What had they experienced on their journey to become a pair of trousers.
Were they thrown to the side of the road, flung out of car window like trash? Were
they crushed flat no longer resembling its former self?
But I also saw a greater message of a born-again life.
Regardless of where we might have come from, placing our trust in our Savior
can transform us into new creations. Like a pair of new trousers.
Robert Parlante
August 2017
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