Wearing Love

Wearing Love
Read Romans 13: 1-14
“But put on the Lord Jesus Christ…”
-Romans 13:14(NRSV)

The home movie flickers in the darkness; the familiar ‘click, click’ of the machine projects images of times long past and loved ones long gone. A girl of six, curls shining in the lights of Christmas, strokes the silky-soft fur of a cape, gracefully draped over the young shoulders of a woman who shares the same curls and same brown eyes of the child. The child snuggles her face into the deep richness of the coat and throws her arms around her mother in a show of pure love and joy only children seem to possess. Both smile at the camera.

The movie ends, and I squint in the brightness of the light. The same cape hangs on the door frame. I take it carefully off the rack, slip it over my own shoulders, and breathe in the familiar smell of my mother. In the mirror I see her smiling back at me. I wear her love.

Saint Paul reminds us that we are to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Daily I put on Christ the same way that I put on this coat. I wear the warmth of His protection. I feel blanketed in His grace. I am blessed by this gift of Jesus Christ from a loving Father and a dear mother.