Friday- learning about love from the Japanese

In traditional Japanese dress, a kimono is worn by wrapping it around the body and tying a sash, or obi, around the waist to secure the clothing.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono)

The writer Joni Eareckson Tada is married to a Japanese man, and explains how this traditional Japanese image helped her to make sense of Paul's words in Colossians 3: 14:

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

How beautiful, that by learning about a different culture we see something that helps us understand God's purpose for our lives! Surely this underlines the idea we first met in Genesis, that we are all made in God's image and each culture hides within it things that point to that image- even something as simple as a sash to hold your clothes together. If the obi is fixed properly- not with great strength or lots of pinning and gluing, but just fixed in place the way it should be, then the whole kimono can be worn gracefully. This picture helps us see too that as we seek to cultivate character, we won't succeed if we see it as a project where we can master one virtue at a time- the virtues work together, and work in harmony. 

What a different picture this is from that of Aristotle- the soldier choosing his armour is replaced by the gentleness of silk, held together by a carefully chosen obi. This Friday, may you clothe yourself with love!