Good morning. There was time, and yes, words like that tell you that I have been around for quite a while, but there was a time when clothing labels were on the inside. Whoever manufactured your hat, or your tee-shirt, or your jacket, or whatever, put a little tag on the inside of the garment proclaiming that they had made it.
Things have changed.
Somewhere along the way we decided that it was reasonable, acceptable, even preferable…to put the name of the manufacturer on the outside. Not only that, we usually pay more for them to do so. How many hats do you own that don’t have the name of a business or team on them? How many tee-shirts? We are walking billboards for companies, and we pay them for the privilege to display their name or logo to the world! Sure, we could probably go to Walmart and buy a cap that is plain blue in color with nothing on the front, but what is the fun in that? Isn’t it far better to wear a cap that identifies me as a Twins fan, or Vikings, or Albert Lea Tigers? Maybe. But please consider the following passage from 1 John 2:15-17 as it is written in The Message: Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
Let’s never forget who we truly are and whose we truly are. We are the children of God, the beloved of our Lord Jesus. Nothing that the world is proud of could ever compare with that truth. Nothing that we could ever display in this world is so essential a revelation of our character than our identity in Him.
But clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13:14
Jesus, now being associated with Him and being identified with Him is something for which we can be proud!
Vern