Clothing holds a surprisingly prominent place in the story of God’s plan to redeem fallen humanity. The act of getting dressed is a daily ritual that I think very little about. I certainly do not often reflect on the spiritual significance of clothes wearing. At the first, Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed in their garden home, but then they ate the forbidden fruit, and the very first symptom of the fall that reared its ugly head was their sudden awareness of being naked. This awoke within them feelings of shame and fear. They famously (infamously?) tried to hide their nakedness by sewing together fig leaves into a crude garment, and this would be the first of many inadequate attempts on the part of human beings to provide a covering for their sin. The story that we are all living in is bookended between fig leaves and robes of righteousness. In between God features other stories that center around articles of clothing. Each of these little stories in some way illustrate and point toward the big story of a God who covers our nakedness with His own royal robes.

 

We begin with the very first instance of clothing ever recorded in the Bible found in Genesis 3.