Where did all this fuzz come from?

Do you know what I have been doing for the last hour? Picking fuzz off my sweaters. Now there is something exciting to do on a Saturday! I am doing laundry and decided, "Well, I will wash these two sweaters together." What was I thinking? One is red and the other is a blue. Yes, they are colors, but they still do not wash well together. I take them out of the dryer and I am ready to cry. I think I have ruined them. How am I ever going to get them back to their original look? I know what I was thinking. I was thinking I could save on time. I was thinking just this one wash together won't mess them up. Oh, I did think about it, but decided they would be okay. So now I have been at the kitchen table picking blue off red and red off blue.

The same thing happens if we wash a wool sweater. Oops, we take it out of the dryer only now to have one that will fit the cat! It shrinks. It takes on a whole new look. It just doesn't fit anymore. We stand back and look upon it wondering how that change happened so quickly. Just one wash. One dry. Now how many of us have done that mistake before?

Somethings even though they appear to be alike just do not mix well. We know the directions. We know they should be separate. We know they should have tender care, but we ignore the instructions and think everything will be just fine. And it is until we take a look and we have now have lots of little fuzz balls hanging on in places they were not meant to be. We don't even want to wear that sweater again. So we put it up or throw it away instead of trying to repair it, but why didn't we just take our time and care for it right in the first place?

Isn't our life with the world like this? We know the Lord's commandments. We know He has set before us standards to follow. He knows what mixes well and what doesn't. When we forget to read the instructions, His instructions, what happens? We become just like these sweaters of mine. They have things attached to them that make them look different and also feel different now. This world changes us in ways we do not realize until we take a good look and see all that has attached itself to us. Before we know it little by little, pieces of this world become attached and we spend days, months and years trying to remove what has tattered us and changed our look.

The amazing thing is, Jesus doesn't want us to throw our sweater away. He wants to repair it. Sure it might still have little places where you can see where He picked off things that didn't belong, but that now only gives us a reminder that He was there. We could even say it adds character to our sweater. He wants to spend time removing each ball of fuzz and making us fresh and something everyone would love to wear. It's amazing what God can do with what we are wearing!!

Colossians 3:8-11 "But now you yourselves are to put off the all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all."

When we carry all these traits with us that makes one ugly sweater doesn't it? But God can remove those traits and fill us with His Spirit and we can walk in a new way.

Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law." 

Now when we begin to allow the Lord to shine through us we are like a warm, soft sweater that everyone wants to touch. It's like a blanket of love to wrap up in. Which would you rather wear? The one that is covered in fuzz balls or the one that is smooth and soft? If I don't watch myself I am that sweater covered in balls of stuff that I am left trying to pick off. Yuck!