Forty Years Of Wear

     It was supposed to have been a rainy day, and my alternative for a project was  the dreaded task of cleaning out my closet.  Thank goodness it did not rain, and I was not faced with that overwhelming job.
      Who really wants to make a decision on what to discard from an over-packed closet?  I have to admit that I actually have clothes in my closet which are perfectly good but many years old.  My daughter would say, “Mom, these are obsolete.  Get rid of them.”  My thoughts are, “but I may need them.”
     When I stopped to think about how old some of the clothes in my closet actually are, I could not help but remember Deuteronomy 29:5 “Yet the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.”  That was a true blessing to the Israelites.   However, I cringe to think that my clothes would not wear out in forty year.  Image it! Who wants to wear the same thing for forty years?  We are certainly blessed to have choices. 
     However, most of us would be glad if the roof on our homes lasted forty years  or if our automobiles and lawnmowers did the same.  Come to think of it, we would all be financially better off if we were satisfied with the clothes we had; if we wore them longer; and if we were not constantly updating with the current trends that keep us buying more and which lead to neglecting the ones which are already hanging there in perfectly good shape “taking up space.”  We do this because we become bored with the same old thing.  We make the fashion designers wealthy while we and our families become poorer. 
     Maybe it is time to stop and think!  Maybe it is time to be thankful for what we have instead of buying more and more.  Wouldn’t our financial pocketbooks be better off?  Wouldn’t we be more thankful if we took a moment to just say, “Thank you God for what I already have?”
    Looking back, I remember that my Mom didn’t have many clothes in her closet.  What she had was a well-worn Bible.  She never appeared bored with life or the clothes in her closet.  When I picture my mom, I see love, peace, and contentment.  I see her filling her time with doing for others.  I see a spacious closet with a somewhat outdated wardrobe, but most of all I see her reading her devotionals and her Bible.  Her Bible was well-worn like her clothes, and neither were dusty or just “taking up space.”