Garments
Since Adam and Eve covered themselves, clothes have been part of man’s existence. The saying goes: “clothes make the man.” And many people go through their lives thinking of little else than their wardrobe.
But fashions change over time. A once-stylish toga would not fit in well in today’s world, except at a costume party.
Today a man may wear a tee shirt or a tuxedo; a woman may appear in a formal gown or in blue jeans.
And none of that tells you about the person inside the clothes. The true measure of a person is never what’s on the outside. It’s always what’s on the inside.
O children of Adam, we have provided you with garments to cover your bodies, as well as for luxury. But the best garment is the garment of righteousness. These are some of God’s signs, that they may take heed. [Quran 7:26]
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10
Some people try to hide inside their clothes, thinking, perhaps, that being stylish makes them a better person.
Indeed, they hide their innermost thoughts, as if to keep Him from knowing them. In fact, as they cover themselves with their clothes, He knows all their secrets and declarations. He knows the innermost thoughts. [Quran 11:5]
The inside, not the outside, is where true beauty lies. The most beautiful person in the world, if possessing an unrighteous soul, is ugly.
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries or the way she combs her hair. Audrey Hepburn
We need to look inside ourselves and with honesty, evaluate our own inner beauty and strength. No one else can ever really know what’s going on inside of me, just as I can’t judge the true inside of another.
My only mission should be to make myself into the most caring, most honorable, most righteous me that I can possibly be. And I do that through reflection and prayer, imploring God to heal any ugliness inside me, and replace it with the true clothes, the garment of righteousness.
You will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside. Oswald Chambers
