The Purchase

My daughter’s gift of losing jackets is a direct threat to my sanity, my well-being, and my goal to stay out of the judicial court system. I will not tell you how many jackets we have purchased in her 3 short years as a student at a school. What I will say is that the last time she lost her jacket, she walked out of this house cold! Partly because I wanted to teach her a lesson, partly because we literally had zero jackets left to give her, but mainly because I REFUSE to purchase another jacket this school year! You hear me? Ref use! She had better layer up with some long sleeves! The temp can drop to -13 degrees Fahrenheit and she will shiver all the day long.

Well, at some point my husband and I completed our individual temper tantrums over her losing her um-teenth jacket and we all headed out for the day. That evening I made it home, walked into my bedroom and what do I see draped over my chair? A jacket. A brand-new jacket, with the tag still attached to it. Surely, my husband bought this for me. I thought, “Too bad he’ll have to return it because he accidently picked up a children’s small instead of an adult’s small, but hey…” He walks into the room. I ask, “Oh, is this jacket for me?” He says, “No, it is for Gabrielle. She needs a jacket, Christy.”

I will edit what I really said, and share the overall theme of my response: “. . . Oh . . . ok . . . dear.”

This child lost ANOTHER jacket and what does he do about it?

He purchased another one. Wow! Just wow!

I had to put on my big girl pants and realize that, while I may, on rare occassions, act as if I know it all, her father knows some stuff too. He knew that in order to be covered to the degree the weather demanded, layers of long sleeved shirts would not suffice.

A purchase had to be made.

He was not the first to use this line of reasoning.

Consider the story of Adam and Eve. They sinned. They felt the blistering breeze of shame and used fig leaves to cover themselves.

The Lord God spoke to them about their sin. Then y’all, the Lord God did something additional! He did not stop with a confrontation for their sin. He did not stop with the pronouncement of judgment for their choice to disobey. He did not see the fig leaves they had sown together to cover themselves and say “serves you right!! Too bad you lost the innocence and perfection that once covered you! Fig leaves it is!!”

Adam and Eve sinned and what did the Lord God do about it?

We walk into Genesis chapter 3, and draped over verse 21, we find tunics! Fresh ones, with the animal blood probably still dripping. In addition to confronting them, judging them, and promising to redeem them (Genesis 3:15), He turns around and “also . . . made tunics of skin, and clothed them.”

Wow! Just wow!

The father knew that in order to be covered to the degree His holiness demanded, they would need to be clothed by, not fig leaves, but something only He could provide. Blood had to be shed.

If they were going to be adequately covered, a purchase had to made.

The good news is that no matter how many times you’ve lost it; no matter who is fed up with all the times you’ve lost it—your Heavenly Father has you covered!

No need to go layering up or sewing fig leaves together in attempts to cover the shame and handle the brutal winds out there in this thing called life. Because of what God did in the Garden of Eden as a foreshadowing of what Jesus did at Calvary, the only response we need to offer sin is repentance. We “layer up” and “sew fig leaves” when we are confronted with a sin issue and we do anything other than repent. Failure to repent, or turn away for sin, is ultimately rooted in a lack of faith—faith in God to forgive you and faith in the possibility of experiencing pleasure apart from what that particular sin promises. What this passage of scripture teaches us is that sin commands a response. Adam and Eve could no longer just stand there naked. Gabrielle could not just go out in the cold as is. They chose fig leaves and long sleeves. Why? Because sin is never inconsequential. Never benign. Never neutral. Sin never produces silence. It commands a response and we are encouraged to respond in faith with repentance.

Contrary to what you expected, there is a jacket of grace draped over a chair just for you. There is a covering of forgiveness made possible through the shedding of innocent blood just for you. Respond accordingly. All other responses will leave us with a discomfort we can never escape, a chill we can never soothe, a debt we can never pay.

Let’s welcome His confrontations regarding sin, appreciate His judgment, and know that it’s all followed by His promise of redemption. He’s got us covered. The purchase has been made!

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