Tailor Made

Mark Twain once quipped, “Clothes make the man; naked people have little or no influence in society.” Yes, but who makes the clothes that make the man? Try Savile Row, a prestigious street in London’s Mayfair district for more than two hundred years. It’s been called “The Golden Mile of Tailoring.”

Throughout the 1800s as residents of Savile Row became increasingly fastidious about their appearance, a proliferation of tailors began opening shops on the street. One famous client of the Savile Row tailors was Beau Brummell, a dashing conversationalist and man of fashion. He’s responsible for a style that lives to this day—the modern suit, trousers, and necktie.

Customers like Brummell “spoke for” every detail of their suits, giving rise to Savile Row’s most famous phrase: “bespoke tailoring.”

The word “bespoke” refers to custom-made clothing as opposed to mass-produced garments. If a garment is “bespoke,” it’s tailor-made to the buyer’s specifications, and is "be spoken for." Historically, it refers to clothing and to the individual tailoring that encompasses everything from fabric to style to size to stitching.

Bespoke People

            It’s a little picture of the craftsmanship God employs as He makes you and me. He designs every stitch of our time and every patch of our lives, weaving and sewing them together until He has made of us something beautiful in His eyes. Psalm 139 says: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (verse 14).

            In Ephesians 2:10, the apostle Paul wrote that we are God’s “workmanship.” Other translations use the words “handiwork” or “masterpiece.” Just as a tailor uses rolls of cloth, scraps of thread, personalized measurements, a unique pattern, and individual traits, so the Lord takes all the loose ends of our lives to make something beautiful—a bespoke you.

He uses the scissors of forgiveness. Only the Lord can cut away the blots and spots so that by the time we’re fully wardrobed, we’re “dressed in His righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne.”[i]

He uses the pattern of wisdom. Whatever threads and remnants we give Him, He knows how to employ them in His fresh pattern for our lives. Romans 12:1-2 (NIV 1984) says, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is

Our Garment Maker also sews our lives together using the thread of His providence. His needle pierces time and space to tie all the loose ends together so the things that happen to us turn out for the furtherance of the Gospel, for our good, and for His glory (Philippians 1:12; Romans 8:28; Ephesians 1:11 The Lord knows how to cross-stitch all things together using the thread of providence. As long as we’re on earth, we’re under construction, becoming increasingly beautiful in His sight.

Something Beautiful

            In her book, Something Beautiful, Gloria Gaither tells the story behind the classic Gaither hymn by the same name. The Gaither’s firstborn child, Suzanne, was working with tempera paints at a small table in the corner of the family room. While lifting the brush over the page, a huge drop of black paint splashed right into the middle of her beautiful design.

            Gloria, who was watching from the kitchen, wondered what Suzanne would do. The little girl considered the problem and then seemed to decide to incorporate it into her picture. The paper was too wet, and her attempts to repair her art sent rivulets in every direction. In her attempt to soak up some of the paint with a washcloth, Suzanne rubbed a hole in the middle of the picture. That did it. In tears, she brought the soggy mess to her mother.

            Gloria hugged her little girl, and then suggested she start over with a new piece of paper. Suzanne skipped happily back to her table with a new page ready to start over again. [1]

             Whether we use the analogy of sheets of paper or scraps of cloth, the point is the same. Give all the pieces of your life to God; and allow Him to make something purposeful and beautiful from them, using His scissors of forgiveness, His pattern of wisdom, and His thread of providence. His tailor-made grace is available for you right now. However tattered you may feel, you are His bespoken child.  

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David Jeremiah is the senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church and the founder and host of Turning Point for God. For more information about Dr. Jeremiah or Turning Point, visit www.DavidJeremiah.org.