Wide-eyed shameless Caroline, at 18 months, exposed her 20 lbs. body to a room full of the opposite sex. My efforts to cover her nakedness proved fruitless; she’d undress the minute my back was turned. As her childcare provider, I teamed with her mother to no avail. Tagging her my stripper, I anticipated passing the challenge over to the adjoining 2- year old's teacher.
I hoped she would be up to the challenge. How do you stop a toddler from showing it all? Her mom’s first idea seemed highly perceptive. She would no longer send her little angel in two-piece outfits; instead, she’d come to class in the popular Onesies. Great idea, but we did not take into account Caroline’s inventiveness.
Like a dwarfed Houdini, she wiggled her way out of the Onesies and stood glaring in my direction. I chalked it up to experience, realizing the necessity to come up with a plan B. As I recall, we tried putting her clothes on backwards. My problem child may have not known if she was coming or going but she set her mind to finding the way out of her apparel.
I chuckle at her fortitude where once I winced. The Apostle Paul could have woven her example into apt sermon illustrations. He urged believers to cast off their old lives as clothing contaminated by sin. I visualize myself finding my sin-stained garments highly offensive with a sickening stench. I cannot stand them near my body; in disgust, I rip them off.
“But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:20-24 NKJ).” Each morning I make a contentious choice.
I choose to expose my life to the light of God; I confess my sin and seek His cleansing. Under His conviction, I remove the rags of corruption and accept His robe of righteousness. Caroline had no guile; unknowingly, she acted out Biblical truth. “And he said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there (Job 1: 21a NKJ).”