an old garment, for the patch will pull
away from the garment,
making the tear worse.”
Matthew 9:16 (NIV)
Growing up in a family of five kids, new tennis shoes were a rare and priceless gift. One pair of shoes was expected to last an entire school year plus one summer. We really didn’t mind; we knew that it was hard for our parents to raise a family whose income depended on farming. Hand me down clothes and shoes were the norm. The oldest sibling really had it the best.
For example, she got the new pair of tennis shoes and as she outgrew them, the next one in line inherited them – no matter what shape they were in. That didn’t keep us from dreaming about having a new pair of shoes – or at least a different pair minus the holes.
One day my sister Patty and I were sitting on the porch step, looking at our wiggling toes poking through the holes in our tennis shoes. Surely there was something we could do, we reasoned, to fix our problem. Suddenly Patty thought of a great plan: why not patch the holes in our worn out tennis shoes?
She excitedly told me that the day before she had found some material that had never been used, tucked away in a basket. Why not cut little squares from it, she said, and sew them over the holes in the shoes?
We were so excited at her stroke of genius! We cut several squares from the new material to cover all the holes and tears. We didn’t wash it first because we wanted the shoes to look as if they had been purchased with bright new patches on them. We found needles and thread and within an hour, we had – what appeared to us – new tennis shoes!
We proudly wore them to school the next day and the reaction was amazing. Kids liked them so much that they immediately went home after school to sew patches on their brand new tennis shoes, just so they would be “in” with what they thought was the latest fad.
Life was great . . . until the shoes got dirty . . . and we needed to wash them. We had not realized that when we washed the old tennis shoes, the patches made of new material would shrink. And when they shrank, they pulled away from the shoe, leaving us with worse holes than before.
In today’s Scripture, Jesus is explaining to His disciples that His new gift of grace could not be covered with the old law of Moses, just as a new cloth could not be sewn to an old one to replace a tear.
Jesus came to give us brand new life in Him! He will never “patch over” the rough stuff in our lives and hope that it holds; instead He brings us new life!
Jesus did not come as an addition to what we believe. He IS what we need to believe! Yes, He came to fulfill the Old Testament but He also came to free us from the old and to cover us with the new: a life of love, mercy, forgiveness and grace that can only be found in Him.
`Do you long for a life without old holes and tears from the past? That is what Jesus offers you right this minute. No patches needed.
Father, I thank you that you have replaced my “old” life with a “new” one with Jesus that does not need to be patched. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
R.A.P. it up . . .
Reflect
Do you have things in your past that you don’t think can be covered by the grace of Jesus?
Why do you believe that He will not extend you His mercy and grace?
Application
Make a list of the parts of your old self that come up from time to time in your life.
Beside each item, write a Scripture that tells you Truth from Jesus and His mercy, forgiveness and love.
Power Verses
Matthew 9:16 (NIV) “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse.”
John 3:5, 7 (NIV) “Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”
II Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
(For more of Nancy Hughes' writing, check out her blog, Encouragement from the War Room or her new book, The Journey Continues...Healing From the Heart.)
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In 2007, Nancy Hughes, only recently widowed, found there were no books available to help people deal with the sudden loss of a spouse. In her first book, Healing from the Heart, she shared her story and other widows' stories of how they coped, both as a helpful resource and as a resource for family members and friends who struggle with how to help someone who is going through that situation. Now an updated version of that book is available, including an introduction from former Senator and Missouri's First Lady Jean Carnahan, who dealt with the sudden loss of her husband in an airplane crash and the stories of more widows, including the widow of Staff Sgt. Kenneth Hobson of Lamar, who was killed in a terrorist attack masterminded by Osama bin Laden in August 1998.
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