Dress for Success

In my closet I have my clothes arranged by type--dresses, skirts, blouses, and pants. I know which clothes are for work, which are for casual events, and which are for really dressy occasions, like weddings. I also have one unique article of clothing: a cotton-candy pink polo shirt, with "A Blooming Basket" embroidered on it. It's the shirt I wear when I help out the flower shop where my sister works. Over the past four years, I've worked holidays, like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, as well as random Saturdays when everyone else is scheduled off for important things, like Army Reserve duty. I like my pink uniform shirt; it shows people that I am a part of the team at that flower shop. When you walk in the door to that shop, you can easily see who belongs there, based on those shirts.

I've spent a lot of my life in fancy clothes for work: suits and high heels, pearls and button-down blouses. It's nice to be able to have a comfortable pink polo shirt and a pair of shorts for a change. Apparently it's nice for other people, too, because I've noticed this summer, as I've filled in a few hours here and there, that people respond differently to me in that pink shirt than they ever did when I was in pantsuits and pumps.

They are more casual, more chatty--it's almost as if that uniform shirt makes me seem like "every man" in a work-a-day, 9-to-5 life. I have an instant bond with anyone else in an embroidered polo shirt, a camaraderie of employees who simply wear what the boss hands out.

I have also noticed that when I'm out delivering flowers, that pink shirt identifies me as a delivery person. It might also be the cotton candy pink van I'm driving, with the shop name and number emblazoned in huge script, but people see me coming, and they are ready for the flowers I'm bringing. I see women's faces light up in offices, wondering which lucky lady is getting roses from her man. I see kids grin with excitement and the sick and elderly smile with delight. That shirt is a symbol of what I offer, as much as the clipboard I carry and the vase in my hand.

In Romans 13:14, Paul says to "clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ" instead of putting on our old sinful nature. I think that dressing myself in a bright pink shirt transforms me, but nothing beats what others see when I put on Jesus.