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Tailor Made

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By design#860
I had a personal tailor growing up.  Sounds a bit posh, doesn't it?  But I really did.  My father was a tailor (always will be a tailor), and of course the best tailor around.  All my life, he took care of my alterations with expert care. He knew how I was built. One arm just a tiny bit longer than the other, one hip a little off, and an ever fluctuating waistline. He altered my clothes perfectly and instinctively.

Over the past few years though, his eyesight has dimmed and he can't tailor the way he could when his vision was sharp.  I remember shopping with confidence knowing he could fix anything that didn't fit me quite right. So, I wouldn't hesitate to buy things that needed altering. I knew he would be ready and willing to make the necessary changes to my clothes, transforming them to fit my crooked body.   

This is my sewing machine.  It belonged to my dad.
Now a days, I know I can't run to my dad to make alterations for me. I miss being able to go to him to customize the fit of my clothes. I am sure I could find someone I trust, but having my dad alter my clothing has been a lifelong event, a special "thing". A thing I just don't feel I can hand over to someone else. He could look at a garment and know exactly how to work with it. For me,he took what looked impossible to the possible. He would examine something I bought and could tell if he could work with it.  I had one hundred percent assurance that when he would be done with it, it would be perfect.

Just as my dad has been my personal tailor all my life, I think of Jesus as my spiritual tailor. There have been many things I've taken on that don't fit me so well.  Things like anger, judgment, self-pity, doubt. Shall I go on?  Things that only HE could turn into something better and "perfect". Jesus takes those things that don't look good on us and transforms them into something more. Something beautiful.  I recently heard a discussion about how we often think we are not enough. Not pretty enough, skinny enough, good enough, etc.  Can we just stop this thinking?  Can we remember that we can take those thoughts to Christ? These thoughts need alterations!  It is in those moments, that we must remember that we can go to Jesus with confidence.  He stands in the gap, fills it, and makes us enough.  He applies his TRUTH to our lives! He is the one that takes a poor fit (a lie we believe) and alters it.

My dad took something that didn't fit me and changed it into something flattering. He could transform a garment so that it looked like it was custom made just for me.  What are you wearing these days that doesn't fit right?  Go to Christ with confidence. He will alter whatever it is and will change it into something that designed to fit you perfectly.  

I will go before you and make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I, the Lord, who call you by your name,am the God of Israel... Isaiah 45:2-3
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

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