In Hans Christian Andersen’s Tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, a vain and self indulgent monarch spends all of his time and his peoples money on clothing, adorning himself richly at the expense of his subjects. Not long into the story swindlers appear and for a substantial amount of money, the emperor is sold decorative and extravagant invisible clothes that can only be seen by the wise, separating them out from the “stupid” in his employ. The charade is entertaining and the deception runs deep, as those who pander to the emperor tell him what he wants to hear, displaying their “loyalty” while colluding with his vain pomposity. Imagine yourself dear one, exposed for all the world to see, naked and without shame? I shutter at the thought! Subjected to ridicule, finger pointing and embarrassment, you and I would want to run and hide, to keep ourselves from exposure of the atmospheric kind, of the natural world and that of the human variety.
What if when you get dressed in the morning, you search and find for yourself a solid and stunning belt? When placing it around your waist and connecting the two ends, you buckle yourself in with…truth. Next, over your heart and innards, you place a breathtakingly gorgeous and diamond studded breastplate…of righteousness. On your feet, you decide that your most gorgeous pair of shoes will have you walking the path of…peace. Now glance in the mirror and see that what you wear, it is stupefyingly beautiful and your jaw drops at your own reflection. You can hardly look, the flash is so bright! You are not done yet because you discover there is more in your closet, finishing touches to complete the look. There, hanging directly in front of you is a shield. You realize you need this as you reach for it. This is large enough to hide behind, to deflect any and all attacks you may encounter from people, places and things that are want to push you off of your peace path. You hoist the shield and realize that while it looks heavy, it is somehow air light and gives you…faith. Glancing up, you see on the top shelve some kind of head gear, a helmet of sorts? Taking it down and placing it on your head, it is the perfect fit! You don’t recall buying it or ever having tried anything like it on, but here you are and here it is and it rides comfortably upon your head and it feels like your mind just aligned…with salvation. Ahhhh, you are feeling armed now, ready for the world. You have truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation but wait, is something missing? Exiting your closet you take with you a sense of searching, you see a glint and glimmer of sharpened shine…a sword? Taking it up you adjust to its weightiness and begin to weld, cutting the space before you. With each slice, you see what is good, pure, right and noble divided from the bad, dirty, ugly and deceptive. Somehow you can see all: the sword has divining power with every swing of the blade…the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Now you feel into how you look; you need not glance in the mirror. Can anyone else see your clothes? Are they invisible?
The light shines and reflects off of your armour and those with eyes to see, can see…you and he, appear and are, inseparable (Ephesians 6:10-18).
