One size fits all. That’s what my daughter told me when I mentioned my desire to purchase some yoga pants. I am a bit behind the times. Still hanging out in my Adidas track pants. Comfort, yes, fashion not so much. She was offering to let me wear hers while she is traveling abroad for several months. She is 20, slim and fit. One size, really?
So, while I avoid the expected disappointment of what I’ll look like when I try these things on, I am chewing on the one-size phenomenon. Because here in America, one size usually means, “Super-size it, please.”
And isn’t that interesting? We’ve got two concepts battling here:
- We’ve lumped together the small to medium to medium-large sizes, so more people “feel” small. Elastic is all the rage, right?
- Our choice for movie popcorn starts at large, then extra-large and jumbo -so we can get “more for our money.” Of course, then there’s the ‘we can’t waste it’ plea bargain, so we ‘waist it.’ And now we are back to the elastic, right?
No question, we are a country obsessed with our weight, all trying to fit into our jeans. Or we used to, but the designers have managed that problem for us, too. They’ve lowered the waist line (calling it modern fit) to rid us of unsightly “muffin-top” and now jeans are made of “stretchy” denim. So we don’t have to feel the unforgiveness of a fabric that stays the same size regardless of ours. As we grow, so do our jeans. Now we’re back to yoga pants.
One size fits all. It’s just tough to buy that. Because I look around and see all sorts of shapes and sizes. Perhaps our problem is with the notion that one size should fit all, that one size is our goal. Well, that’s a beginning anyway.
The next thing is that nasty sense of compression. It’s uncomfortable, the threads that bind us. We resist “stepping on the scale.” We don’t like to have a standardized measure of ourselves. Because it tells us the truth. Perhaps a truth we don’t want to hear. Can we please just admit this? And then take the next step: sever the link between over-weight and bad-person.
I have had several close friends come to terms with this recently, that they don’t like how they measure and they want to make a change. Supersizing their wardrobe was hurting, not helping. Their first step was getting on the scale. Perhaps in the privacy of their home, absent the prying eyes of society but in plain view of the Christ they knew.
That was a re-calibrating moment.
Calibration. That brings me back to the lab when I used to weigh the chemicals that were to compose the test solution I was studying. We calibrated the scales so they would weigh precisely. Then, we tared them, by placing the measuring paper or container on the scale first and re-setting the scales to zero. So it wouldn’t confound our measurement.
The bodies we are in are our physical containers, essential ingredients for the living of earthly life and meant to come with us on the journey beyond. But they are tared when we put them on the Christ scale. Christ sets all our transgressions to zero, when we climb on His scale and ask.
Supersizing may be doing us in, but not for the reasons we think. It’s allowing us to avoid the moment of measure, and denying us the opportunity for re-calibration Which may be the greatest moment of love any of us ever knows.
We’re all meant to be One in Christ. Maybe the one size fits all folks are onto something. Excuse me while I go try on those yoga pants.
