to wear compassion as a cloak.

My lovely friend sent this scripture passage to me recently.

I have needed these words so frequently.

¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  – Colossians 3:12-14

Another friend pointed out how kind it is of God to allow us to put on traits like compassion and kindness and meekness and patience.

Because He knows those characteristics are not natural to people like me.

I need help to put on a heart of love. I need divine strength to choose kindness. To wear patience. To choose to dress myself in meekness.

It’s a little like convincing my four year old to wear an undesired jacket. Sometimes it feels like last year’s cast off. It’s a little tight and it chaffs the skin and frankly, he spends a lot of time trying to avoid wearing it at all.

That’s how I feel about compassion sometimes.

I’d rather not wear it at all.

It’s difficult.

Most any other trait would be easier to don.

And so I find myself grateful for friends who remind me it’s okay to not possess love and mercy naturally. It’s okay to rest in the truth that God creates these characteristics like garments we can wear to cover and change our own weak tendencies.

That his grace and his gifts cover and redeem our flaws and our faults.

That we are allowed to pick up compassion and drape it across our unyielding hearts.

That mercy and meekness and patience are out of our ability but not out of our reach.

It’s probably time to print this verse on my wrist as a steady reminder.

Or simplify the verse to a three word reminder: put it on.