This past week I was walking into a store and noticed the lady walking in front of me. She was probably in her forties. She had her hair nicely done, lots of makeup and jewelry, a nice black sweater and a pair of faded blue jeans that were frayed at both knees and a few other places. A few days later I was at a board meeting and one of the attendees of similar age had a similar pair of jeans. I know it has long been a trend and fashion statement to wear jeans that have holes in them and obviously display bare threads.

While that is not my thing, seeing those jeans took me back to the fifth grade at Our Redeemer Lutheran School. One of our regular activities for P.E. was playing kickball on the asphalt church/school parking lot. On this day, I was wearing a new pair of blue jeans for the first time. When I was “at bat” I got a hold of one, had a good kick, and I took off around the bases. When I rounded second, I stumbled and went down hard. My new denims were no match for the asphalt. I had holes in both knees, not to mention huge scrapes on both of my hands. My hands and knees both hurt and were bleeding, but I was more concerned about how mom would react to me “ruining” another pair of pants. Let’s just say I was hard on my clothes. But I think this was the first time I did so the first time I wore something.

Mom was less than thrilled. She didn’t think those holes in the knees of my new jeans were a proper fashion statement. But after rolling her eyes, she got out her sewing kit and sewed patches on them like she had mended so many other pairs of my pants over the years.

You are probably aware that in Scripture, torn clothes were a gesture that displayed intense emotions. When I tore the knees in my jeans, I was upset I didn’t make it all the way around the bases and scared about facing my parents after ruining a new pair of pants. But the emotions expressed by torn clothes in Scripture were more profound.

• Jacob tore his clothing as a show of grief when his sons falsely told him that Joseph was killed by a wild animal (Genesis 37:34).
• Job expressed his grief by ripping his garments after hearing that all his children had been killed (Job 1:18-20).
• King Josiah displayed outrafe when he tore his clothes, because his secretary read the words of the Book of the Law and the king was made aware of how the people had sinned against God (2 Kings 22:11).
• Joshua and Caleb tore their garments in distress after the Israelites rebelled against entering the Promised Land (Numbers 14:6).
• Paul and Barnabastore their clothes to show their horror at being mistaken for gods, an act of rejection and blasphemy (Acts 14:14).

Perhaps torn clothes can remind us of the grief and remorse we should feel over the ways we have offended our God. We do things every day that are outside of His plan for our lives. We continue to sin and fall short of who God would have us be as His children, those who have been washed and claimed and named by Him as part of His family. That happened in Baptism, and our faith assures us that what Jesus earned through His life and death and resurrection are ours as a gift from God. Torn clothes remind us to repent and receive the forgiveness God offers us through Jesus.

When I think of how my mom lovingly patched my clothes so I could continue to wear them, I am reminded of how Jesus covers my sin with His perfection so that I can go on living in the certainty that I am a forgiven child of God. The torn places were still there, but they were covered up, just like the wounds and scars of our offenses are still there, but have been “patched” by what Jesus did and gives to us.

Isaiah 61:10 I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.