The Man In The Glen Plaid Suit

We all have habits in most areas. Mine in dressing for Sunday morning worship is to wear a suit during school and dress pants/dress shirt/tie in the summer. This entry from March 7, 2012 is about one of my suits.

If you had used the term glen plaid in a sentence last week, I would have had no clue as to your meaning. And yet, I spent some time on Saturday googling the term. This is what WIKIPEDIA offers on the topic:

Glen plaid (short for Glen Urquhart plaid) or Glenurquhart check is a woollen fabric with a woven twill design of small and large checks. The name is taken from the valley of Glenurquhart in Inverness-shire, Scotland, where the checked wool was first used in the 19th century by the New Zealand-born countess of Seafield to outfit her gamekeepers.

There you have it! I didn't just stumble on the term accidentally. I wrote last spring how friends of mine, Becki and Randy Glover, passed on five very nice suits to me and even paid for their alterations. (Randy is an attorney who is required to constantly update his wardrobe.) I've never worn suits to worship services, but in light of their kindness, I've felt the need to wear their gifts on Sunday. As I have no sense  of fashion, I have to look online to see what shirt/tie combinations are acceptable with these suits and two more I bought after Christmas with the help of a Jos A. Bank gift card. A search of grey suits led me to the term glen plaid and helped me decide on a white oxford shirt/navy dotted tie to complete the look. Our Chinese preacher, Ronnie Chang, told me I looked smart. I think that's Mandarin for 'glen plaid looks good on you!'

One of my co-workers, Ben Johnson, calls me Mister Glover anytime he sees me dressed up now. (Ben was one of my eighth grade students several years ago in Tennessee. I should have failed him when I had the chance.) Oh well, it's a compliment to either me or Randy! It's funny: when Jacob deceived Isaac into giving him the family blessing rightly reserved for Esau, he pulled it off by wearing his brother's clothes. The elderly Isaac was confused by the voice but he recognized the garments belonging to his older son. Clothes became a tool of deception. We can use what we were to disguise ourselves and fool others. We choose our outfits based on our perceptions of the ability of those pieces of fabric to impress the world. And yet, the Bible uses clothing illustrations to teach about our relationship with the Lord. This morning, on the way to school, I heard an unknown radio preacher speaking of Gideon from Judges 6. He made the point that when the very reluctant Gideon has the Spirit of the Lord come upon him, it was like saying, and I'm paraphrasing, Gideon was dressed in God's clothing. In that outfit, Gideon was guaranteed success as he led a deliberately small Israelite army to a smashing victory over the Midianites. And we know what test he asked of angel; the woolen fleece being soaked or dry on alternate days. Look back to the WIKIPEDIA  reference; glen plaid started out as woolen fabric. Somehow you knew this story would all come together and match just like the suit and shirt and tie. In Galatians 3:27, Paul says this:
 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
The clothing of Christ; that's a pretty good set of threads!

Applicable quote of the day:
 "The well-dressed man is he whose clothes you never notice."
William Somerset Maugham

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com