Putting On

Halloween is just around the bend. This year Evelyn wants to be a Dragon Queen and Dominic wants to be a Viking! I've just finished sewing the dragon wings that we're adding to a store-bought Halloween dress. The kids have a trick-or-treat activity at their school, I have to miss it because I have to work. Boo. I'm still hoping my boss will be kind and give me Halloween off so that we can go trick-or-treating as a family.

But since I brought up work... I sometimes have time to think while I'm working. Okay, so that's not always a good thing but this time I was pondering an interesting thought. At work, my co-workers and I playfully lament the fact that we all have to wear the same thing, and that as "red shirts" we're the peons to everyone who walks into the store. The red shirts tend to leach away any entitled individuality from us and what we're left with is servanthood.

Then I remembered our Bishop talking about how many layers of vestments he puts on, so many that he nearly disappears into them and you are only left seeing his face and hands, and how much this reflects John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." So, I thought perhaps there could be an applied connection (and maybe a small one at that, but bear with me as I'm no theologian) between the servanthood of the bishop who manifests the presence of Christ and the lowly worker who at the sacrifice of self becomes a servant to all people he encounters...? Christians, from bishops to housewives, are called to imitate Christ and to be His servant and handmaid. We do this, in turn, by humbly bowing our necks to those around us and in humility and love putting others before us and before our own desires.

The moral of the story, for myself, is that I really shouldn't grumble about having to sacrifice my own pride to serve others but instead should see it as putting on Christ. "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." Rom. 13:14 Maybe in doing so, even this shabby mirror can reflect the light of Christ to others.