The weatherman’s little square picture last weekend forecasted clouds and showed 39 degrees as the high temperature. You might assume I had started the semi-annual task of updating my children’s closets, but I’m a professional procrastinator, and big projects are my specialty.

You know the drill for the switch: hours of dragging dusty boxes down from the attic, hashing though worn clothes and sorting the current closet contents to weed out what’s needed for the cold winter ahead.

I feel a little like George Washington planning and protecting his troops at Valley Forge- except without the white powdered wig and starvation and such.

Yesterday, I worked in Ollie’s room and it was a snap! I took out the things that didn’t fit, boxed them up and added what new things I’d bought. {That lucky first born child gets the brand NEW consignment clothes!}

I had to stealthily make the big switch while he was at pre-school, though, to stash away his beloved Thomas the Tank Engine shirt. With it on, he looks like Dora wearing her belly shirt, so I was happy to see it retired.

Today was more of a challenge. I sifted through 4 boxes of sweaters, semi-wadded shirts and corduroy pants that I can already hear wrink-wrink-wrinking down the hallway. Henry has the hand-me-down version of consignment clothes, but most were still fit to be seen in public.

Each time I opened a box, I felt a surge of my recent past coming back to me. My two boys are two years apart; long enough for me to forget each item, but short enough to remember the moments they were worn. Many memories are attached to those treasured outfits that my little guy is acquiring from his big brother.

I touched and lingered a little over most of them: outfits he wore to weddings, special gifts from family, adorable Christmas jumpers, special splurge pajamas and even the somewhat tattered-edged jeans. This was the year that my husband put the kibbutz on smocked outfits, but I still got by with a few.

As I was sifting though the 3T wardrobe and tearing up about my growing children, I started to realize that God does a little bit of seasonal cleaning in me, too.

He has stripped some of the things that I thought I needed for security {much like the Thomas shirt} and has given me exactly what I need for this season of my life: friends like sweaters for warmth, family like jackets for protection and children like splurge pajamas to keep life interesting.

God shows up in my wardrobe, too! Sometimes he is the corduroy pants I can easily hear and see in my life and sometimes he is the well- worn college sweatshirt casually waiting for me to notice him. Either way, he is always there {but hopefully not in the stack awaiting a trip to the dry cleaners}.

While I am constantly going through the cleaning out process in life, each lesson has made me who I am and I’m thankful for all of them- even the stained and slightly torn ones. Those give me character, right?  And I think they might even be in style this season.

So, welcome fall and winter! We are looking forward to new memories in hand me down clothes and the lessons God will teach us in this season of life.

Without the belly shirt.

Hallelujah and Amen.

What kind of seasonal shuffle does God do in your life?

by Hillary

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