Bought the T-shirt

A woman’s work, they say, is never done.  And although much of what was traditionally regarded as ‘women’s work’ is today done, either voluntarily or of necessity, by men, the fact remains that ironing – or at least the need for it – takes no account of holidays.  As I was ironing the other day, I realised that the particular T-shirt being processed was at least twenty years old!  I could tell by the logo on the front where it had come from, and I knew that it was in 1989 that I had been there on my holidays.  Now, of course, it’s been relegated to the ‘housework and gardening’ drawer, and in the not-too-distant future it will find itself dissected for polishing the van.

This line of thought led me to the phases through which T-shirts pass over the years, and on to a similar possible transition of the metaphorical T-shirts of life itself.  I bought two new T-shirts last year, each of which commemorates a visit to somewhere special: places to which I wouldn’t expect to return for several years, if at all.  I wore these soon after I got back home, to initiate or illuminate conversations in which I told my friends where I’d been.  Next time the same friends see these T-shirts, they won’t ask about them, either because they already know the story, or because the shirts themselves will no longer have that ‘brand-new’ appearance.  They will have become absorbed into my range of  'normal' clothing.  Eventually, when they become faded or frayed, they will disappear from view, relegated to the rank of underwear or ‘dirty jobs only.’

In the modern idiom, we also think of T-shirts in another context.  We sometimes use the expression, ‘been there; bought the T-shirt’.  It’s a way to express sympathy with a friend’s bad experiences.  It’s a metaphor for empathising the sequence that usually follows a particular event, such as an illness or operation, a divorce or bereavement.  We want our friend to know that we have suffered similarly, and therefore understand what he or she is going through. 

And isn’t that exactly the underlying purpose of Jesus' ministry, indeed, of His whole life on earth, beginning with His coming at Christmas?

As St Paul reveals in his letter to the Philippians (Phil. 2:6-8), “[Jesus] made himself nothing ... took the very nature of a servant ... and was made in human likeness.”  He did this so that he could draw alongside us in our humanity.  There is nothing we can do in our lives to which Jesus cannot truly say, ‘been there; bought the T-shirt.’  He even did the one thing we don’t have to do – He paid the price for our sins through His death on the Cross.  Even if you haven’t done so before, draw near to Him. Wherever you are in life, whatever you’re going through, Jesus understands.  He knows just what each of us is going through - He’s ‘bought all the T-shirts!’