I hate to clean out my closet. Even if I know there’s a hole in a shirt, a button is missing or it’s out of style it’s hard for me to get rid of it! I know, just get rid of it, move on! Now it’s time to spring clean again, yikes! It is hard to part with my clothes because I want them to go to someone who would like them. So it was a great draw for me to attend my first SWAP. The idea that someone could use my things made it easier to part with them. It was exciting!
A sweet friend Julie invited me to her clothes swap. She hosted her twenty something friends and invited me even though I was, at that time, in my mid 40s. We were encouraged to both bring and take items. Whatever remained at the end was donated. Her apartment was perfectly staged, set up in sections like a department store:
Casual wear
Work/career
Athletic apparel
Shoes
Jewelry
Handbags
“Let the swapping begin!” It was bizarre, at first, to take the clothes I liked. I felt like a shop lifter the first time I took something because I didn’t pay for it, I just stuffed it in my bag. But I got over that odd feeling quickly and soon made the most of the thrilling opportunity.
Since then, I’ve attended other swaps. One day, at a mutual friend’s home, it was so much fun to try things on and find things I loved. I told Julie, “This whole swap concept is ingenious!” I was also delighted when a young gal left giddy carrying something I had brought.
Later, I hosted my first swap. I invited the ladies from my Bible study group. I watched as ladies brought something they couldn’t use or no longer needed while someone else selected that very thing and took it home cheerfully. “Let the swapping begin!”My friend Cheryl was moving to Colorado so she brought many things that needed to be given away.
In a true swap there are typically some rules or parameters set. You’re not allowed to bring junk or broken things. The invite might state: Don’t bring the sweater that needs mending, a purse without a handle or the jacket with a torn pocket. Please bring items that you no longer want but someone else may be able to use.
I was thinking about the swap and how that relates in the spiritual realm. These rules are not the way it works in God’s economy! We are allowed, even invited to bring to him our broken lives for his SWAP or grand exchange. Our righteousness is like filthy rags, but we turn those filthy rags into him in exchange for His robe of righteousness. He gives us a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Beauty out of ashes. WHAT A SWAP!
With heads bowed low, we come to him. We give him our sin, guilt and our shame and he swaps all of that for His forgiveness, His glorious presence and life itself. He even lifts our head and crowns us with favor. Our life for His life. We are clothed with joy! This is the swap of the century, the millennium and of a lifetime. The great I AM is the original swap item and ultimate swapper. Thank you Jesus! “Let the swapping begin!”
In your own life what about the spiritual swap are you most thankful? Share here.
rachel inouye 