I recently rediscovered an old dress in my closet. This is not a dress I would regularly wear. It’s not even a dress I would typically pick out in the store because, well, it’s super fun! I feel happy when I wear it. The bright feminine colors make me come alive when I wear it. Yet, I still forgot about this dress. Like many other articles of clothing in my closet, this dress was out of mind simply because I’d settled for the convenience of grabbing clothes to wear that were easily accessible and in plain sight. T-shirts and yoga pants require no thought, and I prefer not to put a lot of thought into what I put on each day. While I know that clothes can be fun for some, I tend towards plain, nondescript, basic clothing that gets the job done.
However, this dress was anything but plain! It’s almost like I didn’t intentionally choose it. It seemed to choose me! And when I stumbled upon it in my closest as it hung hidden behind other clothes I hadn’t worn in a while, it brought me joy! As a matter of fact, I forgot how much I really loved it. The look of it. The feel of it. The way the patterns and colors invited me to honor the parts of me that are fun, colorful, and adventuresome. It was in the same moment that I felt joy rising that I also remember the mess in my closet.
A few months ago, the mess in my closet caused the rod to break. The tension of all the clothes I hadn’t worn in a while made the rod collapse. Because of the collapse, I remembered what I needed to wear. I rediscovered what I wanted to use and enjoy in my every day.
Finding God’s goodness in the midst of a collapse in our life helps us to remember the reasons we love Him, the reasons we serve Him and the reasons we are grateful for what He has done for us. It’s in the midst of the mess, the challenging and hard times, that we learn. The messy moments lead us to recall God’s love for us and how He’s been faithful.
Often, we forget.
We forget our decision to believe. We forget to own the love that God offers. We forget to ongoingly accept, by faith, the goodness of God represented by His gift of Jesus Christ on the cross for us. As we live, we pile on experiences and circumstances and forget about the very things that we’ve “worn” in the past that covered us and brought us joy. While we don’t want to experience a collapse in our life, it’s often not until this is our experience that we are forced to remember the goodness of God and His embrace in our every day. Even in the midst of our mess, we can remember—remember who God is, remember that He is faithful, remember that He is loving, and remember that He can rescue us in time of distress.
I remember the days of old;
I meditate on all Your doings;
I muse on the works of Your hands.
(Psalm 143:5)
Keep this in mind, my friend. When the closet of your life gets full or feels like a full-on disaster, it just might be that you are in just the right place to be set on a path of rediscovery—the opportunity to become reacquainted with the beautiful memory and belief in the faithfulness of God.
Chrystal Evans Hurst
