They are ten years old. . .
and he still wears them
even though there are stains, tears, and places held together by strings of worn fabric.
My husband’s work jeans.
“Can you fix these again,” Gary said as he held out his faded jeans. “They are still great work jeans. . . “
And, of course, I said I would try.
As I looked for the holes, tears, or thready places, I began the process of hand sewing in a new piece of fabric to cover, reinforce, or replace the old.
This was not our first rodeo!
I had been patching these jeans a while. When Gary gets a pair of jeans “broken in” and comfortable, its hard for him to replace them with a new stiff pair. The jeans bend and flex with him as he gardens, cuts limbs, and works with the chickens.
They are comfortable. They are loose in all the right places. They are a known quantity.
It took quite a while for me to get the job done this time. It seemed like every time I thought I was finished, I would see another place that no longer held together.
I double sewed and knotted the thread securely. However, I knew he would be back soon to get more repairs on these old faithful jeans.
Folks hold to more than old, worn jeans. We may have beliefs that don’t fit us any more. Beliefs that don’t hold water. Beliefs that don’t help us with the stress of daily life, grief, and the questions we have about death and life. Beliefs that don’t give us purpose or make sense of this life.
We may have behaviors that we have used over and over to solve problems or deal with issues that may have worked at one time in the past, but don’t work now. Ineffective or harmful repeated behaviors that are negative and not Godly in our lives need replacing.
Have you tried to patch up your belief system in the changing world around you without any absolutes that you can trust and depend on?
Jesus talked about trying to fit the new onto the old in Mark 2:18-22. “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No they pour new wine into new wineskins.”
Jesus was the “new wine” that could not be contained in the “old wineskins!” The law was right, but was fulfilled in Jesus Christ! If you want to know the Truth, look to Jesus!
He broke through sin, legalism, and tradition to bring the new saving relationship we all crave!
Let Him fill you!
