Everyday JoysSample

CLOTHES AND CLOTHS

This might sound a bit crazy, but I’ve always found something satisfying about folding clothes. (Clothes or cloths? I always have to check!) Especially towels. Now, I’m not saying I get to the folding as soon as the dryer sings its “I’m all done” song. But when I do get around to the folding, I find it to be soothing. And I’m not even being the least bit sarcastic here.

Perhaps it’s the joy of seeing the jumbled, tumbled chaos being sorted into neat and orderly piles. Or perhaps it’s the visible reminder that there is one job I can actually finish. At least for the 30.7 seconds before the next load of laundry needs to be done. (Save me.)

But as I was folding laundry the other day, the thoughts tumbling through my mind were not about clothes but about cloths. (I doublechecked the spellings!) I thought of the cloths in Luke 2:7 that Mary wrapped around her newborn son—God’s Son. I thought of the servant’s cloth Jesus wrapped around His waist as He knelt to wash the feet of His disciples. The same feet that, just a few hours later, would run away from Him (John 13:3–5). And I also thought about the cloth that covered the head of Jesus as He lay in the grave. The one that was neatly folded and laid aside when He rose up and left that tomb empty (John 20:7).

Swaddling cloths. Servant cloths. Grave cloths.

Just simple, ordinary pieces of fabric, but these cloths represent so much more in my life and in my faith. The beautiful beginning of a baby, the Son born of God. The beautiful example of the servant’s life I am to lead. And those grave cloths? They’re not an ending. They represent yet another beginning, made possible by the love and sacrifice of Christ. A beginning even more wonderful than that long-ago, swaddled-up-in-Bethlehem one.

Clothes and cloths. Just another glimpse of the miraculous intersection of ordinary and divine.

Challenge: As you fold that next load of clothes, allow your thoughts to wander back to those three cloths in the life of Jesus.