“We all put our pants on one leg at a time.”
Or so the old saying goes. We often hear this quip when one person is intimated at the success or talents of another. In our timidity, it reminds us that while someone else may be smarter than us, more skilled or more attractive, we all share some pretty basic commonalities. One of them is that we all have the need for clothes, and when it comes to how we become attired, we each follow roughly the same process.
This reality of our shared characteristics can be an important reminder in our relationships. Often it is what provides the courage for someone to ask for help, or to make a bold approach. Remembering the similarities that we share can give us courage and confidence when we lack it. And while the saying is helpful, it does not reflect some of the most important shared attributes; namely that each person that we interact with is fearfully and wonderfully created by God and that each of us is a sinner in need of a Savior. More than our method for getting dressed, this is what truly binds us together. And it is these two shared attributes that are important for every follower of Christ to remember. It is these commonalities that should give us boldness and confidence to share the good news of Christ.
For many of us, it is far too easy to go through life and put the people we encounter into two categories: there are the people that we interact with who make our lives fuller, and the people who seem like a hindrance. We have a tendency to consider others in light of how they affect us, rather than in considering them as image bearers of the most High God. Each individual has been intentionally and beautifully created by the King. Each of them has value and worth because they are fashioned by Him. While the artistry of our Creator may be obscured by the effects of sin, it does not negate the fact that every individual comes from Him. And as a result, each person is treasured by our God.
While the fact that we are all God’s creation may increase our affection for other individuals, it is also important that we remember that this isn’t the only commonality that we share. Because each and every one of us have violated God’s law, we are all sinners. And because we are sinners we are separated from our Father, unless we repent and put our faith in Christ. Therefore, out of love for those God’s created, if they do not yet know Him, we should be compelled to share this message of faith and repentance. Our concern for others should motivate us to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
If we are God’s child, we should constantly be reminding ourselves of these two shared commonalities. Everybody that we talk to is not just a person who either helps or hinders us along life’s path. Instead, every person we talk to is either someone who knows and has embraced the saving grace of Jesus Christ, or someone who hasn’t. There is no one that we interact to whom this doesn’t pertain. Every person is a sinner in need of a Savior. And because each person was purposefully and beautifully created by God, each person is someone that is special to Him. Every individual is a soul that He created and that He longs to redeem.
This too should give us confidence, but far greater confidence than we may obtain by recalling that we all get dressed the same way. Remembering that every individual is created by God and needs His grace to spend eternity with Him, should give us boldness in telling them the message of salvation. The fact that we all share the same need should make us eager to proclaim the good news of how this need has been met in the person of Jesus Christ. We are all the same – not only in how we attire ourselves, but because we all need to be clothed by the grace and righteousness of our Savior.
