2025 will be a year that we can never forget. Simply for the fact that saying goodbye to three parents in one year has a way of changing life that can only be marked by before and after. During the watching of a life slipping through the fingers, the glimpse of eternity is so close, one almost feels like breathing ethereal air can be grasped. Yet the soul is wrenched back into everyday life with pain and the temporal existence of eating and sleeping and keeping one’s own strength up with water, and coffee and sometimes those goodies that people deliver during the days after.

This year has also been marked by five little beings coming into the world. From a grandson, to a niece and two great nephews and one great niece, life has shown up to be precious and wonderfully made in these little bodies. How could we ever think that God has not truly blessed us during this year of life passing on with life coming anew? It amazes me how God mysteriously gives us more love when we feel the intense loss of loved ones.

Study of Colossians 3:12. A little while ago we had a guest speaker at church. His sermon was based on a text from Colossians that I have not studied for some time. Colossians chapter three gives a very odd list of clothing items for the “elect of God.” Here is the passage: “Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering: bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.” It goes on to say above all these spiritual garments of behavior, we are to Put On Love.”

The Psalms often talks about putting on a garment of praise in our moment of affliction. I get the psychological and spiritual reference for this as it helps us to change our attitude. And yes some of the afore mentioned thought processes do the very same. So I wanted to look at the list in a whole different mindset. When has someone else clothed me in my spiritual naked oblivion with these gifts of love and let me be my miserable sinful person until I understood that God looks at me as holy and beloved?

Tender mercy? The story that I can think of most directly is through learning my giftedness in piano. There was a time in my life some twenty years ago that I was moving from reading the music to playing by ear. This has been a long twenty year learning curve. Today there is not a song or hymn style of praise and worship that I cannot play in just a matter of minutes. I can even learn songs from contemporary or standard rock and roll in just a matter minutes. Twenty years ago if someone asked me to play for instance “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” I would have said -no way! Now I can play that and a whole host of other tunes. Simply by recalling the music in my mind. However, when I tried to play for my daughter’s senior high school recital, I bombed the event with my inability to read the music. I got utterly lost on stage and totally ruined the event, in my mind anyway. There after the whole crowd of people had to give me mercy along with my daughter as we greeted all the guest and enjoyed the refreshments. What a humbling experience.

When was I shown Kindness and probably did not deserve it? Was I ever feeling a bit mean spirited and someone chose kindness instead of repaying my actions with evil? This goodness was given to me …

Humility comes my way often, as I think of my failing eyesight. One day I did not realize the drummer for praise band was still the same person and called him by another name of a substitute drummer. Oh, dear. These eyes fail me so frequently.

How about that meekness gift? Most people do not even know what meekness is these days. So when did someone have the power over me to do me injury and choose to treat me tenderly and gentle? I have to say that the person I think of first at all times in the meekness clothing is my husband. He has always been tender and gently with me even when I am difficult. His love for me has always been with restrained care. There is no one that I know who is so cautious in his treatment of so many people.

Long suffering and patients was given to me just this week at my daughter’s house. My eyes were closing in and I did not help with the “tidy up” chore in the basement. It just seems easier to sit still and not get in the way while so many bodies are moving. Yet she did not feel it wrong to say, there is laundry that needs to be folded. Yes, I can do that. It is a stand still kind of thing. As long as no one comes along and moves my piles, I might be okay with folding laundry.

Bearing burdens with one another? Well, I often recall my pleurisy illness when it seemed like no one was bearing my burden with me. So now how can I recall an event in my life when others helped bear my burden? I had spleen surgery, and my mother took the girls for the weekend because my father-in-law had chemo and planting season. Indeed bearing the burden was shared. Even though I was pretty frustrated later in the month when I had to power through to clean the house before church ladies came for coffee. They did not bring a treat, I had to do that also. It was so inconvenient. Uff da, how “old school” church visits are different than my daughter’s babies coming and her church family bringing meals.

Was I ever clothed with Forgiveness by someone. Probably more times than I can tell. This is part of life so many more times than we know. So recently my daughter finally shared a “hurt” that I spoke to her years ago. While her dad and I may have believed this particular truth, saying it out loud had been a very painful thing to do. Oh, how often we need to keep our thoughts to ourselves and let God be the disciplinarian in our adult children’s lives. I did learn that, but unfortunately my poor girl had to go through a lot of counseling to let go of that painful statement. Forgiveness goes both ways. But mostly forgiving others is for our own soul’s health.

Put on love in the most difficult of moments. This is when we really want to lash out, do we put on love? When did someone cloth me with love rather than strike back out of pain? Here I think of my mother going through all of her health crisis moments the year of my birth. From the nearly dying at my birth to tonsil surgery, appendectomy and other illness, she still had to take care of me and love me while I was a tender child in need of so much around the clock care. More of us should really think about how hard it is for parents those first few months with an infant child. That is putting on love for sure!