4. Basting Threads and Heavenly
Robes
HENRIETTA MEARS WAS fourteen years old when her brother, Norman, had his first custom-tailored suit of clothes. He had always thought the idea of having suits custom-tailored to one's individual measurements was entirely unnecessary, but someone persuaded him to go to a tailor and have a suit made. One day he came home fussing, fretting, and fuming.
"Why, what's wrong, Norman?" asked Henrietta.
"Oh, I just went down to the tailor's to have a final fitting for my suit. And it's just the way I knew it would be — terrible! It certainly isn't worth all that fuss and bother. Why, it doesn't fit at all. It certainly didn't look as though it had been made for me!"
Nothing more was said about the suit for several days. Then one day, Henrietta was coming down the stairway and she found Norman standing in front of the mirror in the entry hall. He was wearing his new custom-tailored suit. He was turning this way and that in front of the mirror, touching each seam, looking closely at each detail, and wearing an expression of fatuous satisfaction as he smoothed the jacket down and took a long look.
"Why, Norman," asked Henrietta, "is that your new suit?"
"Yes, isn't this something? I never saw such a marvelous fit. Every detail is just perfect!" He stretched and turned and looked some more.
"But I don't understand, Norman! The other day you were so bitter and discouraged about it. You thought the whole idea was silly and a waste of time and money."
"Well, that's just it, Henrietta. I saw it before it was finished. The basting threads were still in it and part of it was wrong side out, and the seams and the ragged edges were showing. It looked terrible! But now that the seams are stitched and finished and it's all pressed, it's just a beautiful fit."
Henrietta smiled as she sat on the stairway and watched him turn this way and that. "That's just the way it's going to be in heaven," she thought to herself, "when we try on our robes of righteousness. Down here they don't look so well, but when we get to heaven, we'll see ourselves the way we're supposed to look."
This is the analogy she has used through the years. "Just like my brother Norman's custom-tailored suit — you look at Henrietta Mears today and you see my heavenly robe wrong side out; the basting threads are showing and the edges are ragged. You see a lot of things in me you don't like but those are just the basting threads! You wait until I get to heaven and put on my heavenly robe! For Christ says we shall be like Him, so there I'll be: all the seams pressed, and the basting threads gone, all the ragged edges hidden, and everything turned right side out. You will hardly recognize the new Henrietta Mears!"
Noel Lyons, director of the Greater Europe Mission, writes: "Miss Mears wrote me in 1940 and said that she, with the directors of Forest Home, believed I was the man to become the managing director of that work — she scared the daylights out of me. I had never been on a conference grounds and she wanted me to manage one! Her straightforward manner in dealing with young people, her love for them, her complete devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ and His service have constantly challenged me since I came to know the Lord Jesus Christ in the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood . . . 'Without a vision the people perish' will never jeopardize anyone who goes along with Miss Mears. I've been scared many times since that first day by the faith and daring of this lady of God."
She wants people to stand up for their ideas, and she wants her leaders to be true to their convictions; she desires this above all else. She wants her leaders to express their ideas and to think for themselves. She takes suggestions from others and she believes wholeheartedly in anyone in whom she puts her complete confidence. That is why her leaders have such a great responsibility. She could not carry on her vast program if she did not feel she could depend absolutely upon them. Once she assigns a task, it is completely assigned. She knows how to distribute responsibility and put others in charge; she
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also knows how to step in and pull something out of the fire, if, at the last minute, a leader fails. She believes as it is stated in Proverbs 9:8-9: ". . . rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be wiser still: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning."
Miss Mears points out that there must always be a concern for all, yet a call to the specific. She was called to train leaders, and her skill and success have come in those circles where she has been able to challenge the greatest potential for Christ. Consecrated money can build conference centers and Sunday schools or consecrated talent. She feels that it is the church's great responsibility to use whatever talent is present. Not nearly enough people have truly dedicated their lives and their talents to the Lord, so where there is consecrated talent, it should be properly used. She points out, "In the church, the one-talent man is usually clutching his one talent closely to himself and not using it in the fullest way for the Lord. I have been interested in the person who has talent, great talent, and who is willing to use it completely for the Lord, for I know that when the Lord uses that talent He will win many more."
If an athletic coach is interested in training champions for the race track, the football field or any other sport, he is interested in building with the very best material he can find. If a conductor is interested in building the finest symphony orchestra, his immediate concern is in procuring only the finest musicians. And so Miss Mears has put much of her personal attention into developing spiritual champions. Her discipline and guidance of leaders is rigid, so that she will not send out ill-equipped spiritual leaders to do a halfway job. "Nothing less than our best for Christ, and nothing more than God's complete adequacy for our inadequacy."
Moses was brought up in a palace, with all the educational advantages and circumstances of wealth and political prestige possible to train him for his calling. Miss Mears has had the calling of a Moses, with cultural training and circumstances of wealth and prestige, and she was called to serve in probably the most sophisticated area of the nation. She has always felt more evangelistic attention has been paid to the "down and outers" than to those of culture and wealth. "No one should be neglected," she says.
Miss Mears loves pinks and reds, and especially she loves red roses. She loves the fall season for its beauty, the vivid leaves, the fresh
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crispness of the air, the sound of crumpling leaves. But for the greatest challenge, she looks to spring, to the newness, the beginning again, the tiny leaf peeping out of black earth. It's the same old tree but with beautiful fresh leaves. "It's encouraging to us and it gives us hope to start over again," she says with a twinkle. The new verdure, the light green, has a beautiful, spiritual quality: new life in the old earth. So, for her pleasure it is fall, but for her challenge it is spring.
She loves hats. She has big hats, small hats, a big red cartwheel, a small red one with a big red rose, but always at least one red hat. There was a beige hat maker in Buenos Aires and at a very small cost he made ten different hats for her. One was a fuchsia hat with plumes and another was white with egrets. She has always said, "I wear my hats for my college boys, and they love them." When Miss Mears wears her helmet of salvation, it is very likely adorned with plumes or dripping violets. But her whole motive is to serve the Lord, for to paraphrase Paul: "Whether you wear a hat with plumes or flowers, wear it unto the Lord." And Miss Mears wears hers unto the Lord.
"If you are properly dressed according to the standard of the group you are in, you can forget yourself. You will attract attention to yourself if you are not abreast of the fashion of the times. If you are over-dressed you will feel conspicuous. Be sure every detail is right and then forget your appearance," she says. "When people invite you to dinner, honor them and wear your best. Let them know you think it is an important occasion. They have been working hard all day to make the meal a lovely occasion, so don't act as though you didn't think it important by wearing a sloppy old outfit. I think Sunday clothes are a good idea. Why not look your best when you go to church on Sunday? Honoring the Lord should be the greatest occasion of the week."
She has always felt that the beautiful things in a home can be graciously shared by all. So few homes are open in hospitality to large numbers of people that she feels she wants to have her home gracious and beautiful so that all who come will have a sense of joy in sharing its beauty and a sense of possession as they bring their friends to see her home and show them around with almost a sense of sharing ownership. Of course, this fulfills two purposes: all enjoy the beauty of her hospitality and it brings newcomers within reach of
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the Christian testimony of the meetings. A social gathering is never ended in her home without a closing prayer.
One activity she used to enjoy was gardening; through her life she has spent many hours in planting and caring for the flowers. Even when she was a little girl, she was thrilled with this hobby. Here there were spiritual applications for her to learn, either from her own observation, or from those pointed out by her mother. She was always so eager in the early spring to get her garden ready, and to have the thrill of planting the seeds. This done, she left it to itself and would unfortunately forget it, and when she returned the plants had withered and died. So to make up for it, she took water and lavishly drenched them and literally drowned them. If there had been any doubt as to whether there was any life left, there wasn't a struggle or a quiver after the flood of her increased attention. Her mother was quick to seize the opportunity for a spiritual lesson for Henrietta as she pointed to the ruin:
"You see, Henrietta, it is just the same in our spiritual life. We can plant the seed of God's Word and then forget about it. We neglect prayer and Bible study until our spiritual life has died, parched and dried. We cannot then suddenly attempt to immerse ourselves in a great dose of spiritual things and think we will take care of the neglect. You cannot cure a garden dying of thirst by drowning it with water, neither can you cure your spiritual life that is dying of neglect by drowning it in a flood of Bible study. The neglect has already done its harm. There must be daily, regular attention to your spiritual life as well as to your garden." And as Henrietta was left in dismay to look at the soggy, muddy mess and the shriveled plants, she had to agree with the spiritual lesson.
As a child, another characteristic of her gardening was a great eagerness and impatience to see the fruit of her labor. She had an alarming tendency to try to hurry up Nature's process; she wanted everything done in a rush, even then. To check up on the whole matter she would pull up the plants to see how they were doing and then attempt to re-plant them; to her dismay she learned she could not push the tiny sliver of a radish back into the ground so that it would continue its growth. So in spiritual matters she has learned there is a certain period of spiritual growth that cannot be rushed, even when she is sorely tempted to pull up the spiritual work to see how it is getting along.
Once she complained to her mother that it seemed a shame that
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flowers were so expensive since they both loved them so much. Her mother pointed out: "We must remember that there are many men earning their livelihood from this work of raising flowers to sell to us. So when we buy their flowers, not only do we have the flowers to enjoy but we are helping others to make their living."
It is the philosophy that Miss Mears has remembered as she has gone on her European travels and as she has purchased the beautiful works of art representative of each country. Not only will she and her guests receive pleasure from their beauty, but she is helping those men who spend their lives fashioning these objects to make their living.
"Christians should enjoy the beautiful things of this world, for this is our Father's world. If we use the beautiful things to attract others to Christ, there will be many more to share in the evangelization of the world. We must always consider everything we do in terms of winning the greatest potential for the Lord. It is too bad that more Christians do not enjoy more of the culture of the world, listen to beautiful music, study the great paintings, for then their witness and their lives will be more attractive to others," she says.
Miss Mears carries on the tradition of Christian hospitality just as did her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother. "If Christians would only realize the powerful influence that entertaining in their homes could have on those around them, there would be far more gracious home entertainment by Christians than there is. When a person has been in your home and eaten at your table, he feels a close bond with you; he feels as though he really knows you. Christ did much of His work in the homes of the people. If more Christians would dedicate their homes, their dining tables, their living rooms to inviting others to partake of Christian fellowship with them, the effect would be tremendous." These are Miss Mears' thoughts on Christian hospitality. "As soon as the members of a church begin to use their homes for Christian entertaining and as centers for Bible study groups and prayer groups, then the church will have the vitality of an early Christian church and the influence will increase tremendously."
Miss Mears has been called "public energy number one" by a business associate, and a young college man who stayed in her home one summer writes: "The summer that I lived in her home was both an inspiration and a humiliation. The pace she set was inspiring, but because of my fatigue in trying to keep up, it was also humbling. I like to think of myself as a healthy young man, but she easily out-distanced me. I still remember driving home with Teacher from Wednesday
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night prayer meeting, dog-tired and trying to carry on my part of the conversation as she, with uncanny vigor, continued to pour out her spirit. I thought I was an early riser, but I rarely remember being up before I heard her moving quietly through the house, opening windows to let the fresh air in (she is meticulous about that), and usually it seemed she went to bed late. No matter what her schedule, she literally teemed with vitality, enthusiasm and life. It was inspiring; it was also convicting. She can attend meeting after meeting and still engage in a conversation with you which would make you think that you were the most important person in the world (a trait of hers), and that she had just awakened from a refreshing nap. She continues to rush through life as vitally as a young river, refreshing all those whom she touches." The young man, now a seminary student at Princeton, adds, "J.B. Phillips translates Romans 8:11 this way: 'Nevertheless once the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives within you He will, by that same Spirit, bring to your whole being new strength and vitality.' This is Teacher's secret energy, I believe."
There are times when she is tired, but let anyone call for spiritual help and she comes to life instantly and clearly, no matter what the hour.
If Miss Mears is wearing basting threads, I can hardly wait to see the beauty of her heavenly robe when it is all pressed and turned right side out!
