Hand-Me-Downs

To Those with a Heart to Hear:

Back in the day, when I was young–I’m not a kid anymore and neither do I wish to be one again–you could find me wearing a maroon velvet zipper shirt, a pair of loose fitting cream jeans, and some black Timberlands. I was in the seventh grade at the time and with my Elvis Presley side burns (what you know about facial hair at 12), no one could tell me that I was not “the king.” The funny thing is that save for the Timbs, which my mother reluctantly purchased in an effort to indulge my social conformity, the clothes that I boasted were not even my own. The jeans and shirt that I faithfully rocked with pride once belonged to my friend Justin. I never gave much thought to my “hand-me-down” clothes other than the fact that Justin was two years older than me, and the big brother I never had, so anything that was cool enough for him was most definitely fresh enough for me. Then eleven years later I was introduced to a community of African-American women from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, and everything changed.

It was a cool afternoon last December in San Francisco. My mother and I were hanging out for the holidays and had made plans to visit the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Mom has always been a fan of the arts (performing and fine), me not as much, but her passion often leads me to discover new interests and this experience followed suit. After some time exploring the traditional collections and exhibitions, we came to Mom’s highlight for the day, The Quilts of Gee’s Bend. The Quilts is a collection of handmade fabrics from over six generations of African-American women, spanning from Reconstruction until the present, living in an all-black rural community in Alabama (for more information click here). With a pre-recorded tour guide leading me through the museum’s audio headset, I entered into their world.

The artistic genius of the women responsible for The Quilts is self-evident upon walking into the exhibition. Each piece of fabric is woven together like the lives of characters in a story, with each quiltmaker writing the narrative from her own perspective. The website boasts that “critics worldwide have compared the quilts to the works of important artists such as Henri Matisse and Paul Klee”–both of whom I know little about–however, it is to our great disadvantage to interpret The Quilts solely for its artistic value. Of greater importance is the art that lies beneath the art: the art of survival.

During my tour of the exhibition, my audio guide shared behind-the-scenes information about the origins of many of the pieces. One in particular struck me as relevant to my relationship with hand-me-down clothes. In the early to mid-1900s, one of the quiltmakers received a shipment of used pants from a Connecticut woman, and she offered them to community members, many of whom were poor. However, people rejected the offer stating that the pants were “out of style.” She urged and pressed them but they still refused, so she turned the pants into quilts. The quilts from Gee’s Bend were often made from old articles of clothing, things that people did not want or could not wear anymore. The women who were quilting would then recycle the clothes into pieces of fabric that could provide warmth in the night, curtains for the windows, or covering for a kitchen table. The quilters even produced fabrics for major department stores, creating significant revenue streams for the entire community. Through the generations what they “handed down,” was not merely a pastime or a hobby, it was a strategy for survival.

Although my childhood connection to hand-me-downs was coated with superficial aspirations of trying to be the freshest kid in the class (though clearly my outfits must have been “out of style” as well), the reality is that it put clothes on my back and allowed my mom to focus finances on other areas of need. This culture of handing down undoubtedly helps countless families survive on a daily basis, even amidst the selfish and materialistic society that we live in.

Yet in still, the real value of hand-me-down culture stretches far beyond the physical and into the spiritual realm. If humanity is clever enough to find ways to survive by handing down material possessions in a world that is fading away, how much more should humans be seeking to hand down the strategy for eternal survival? How much more should we be like the quiltmakers of Gee’s Bend, who sat on porches with their sisters, daughters, nieces and anyone else game to listen, singing gospels that proclaimed their faith in Jesus Christ? They like Lois and Eunice before them, grandmother and mother to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5), handed down to their family the means of soul survival. If we learn anything from these women it is that we should be concerned with the state of our souls and our means of survival after this life ends. For this life will end and justice will prevail in a world inhabited by unjust men and women.

See God has offered us a means of eternal survival and that means is Jesus Christ. “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). For those who do not believe but desire to know the means, seek God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and by grace come to faith in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For those who do believe and trust in His name, the greatest gift you can give someone is to hand down to them your faith in Christ, the means to eternal life.

“Now if you saw your friend about to get hit by a car,
You would run and push them out of the way.
Because you love him, you would shove him,
To keep the taker from shoveling that brown dirt over his grave.
Now if you would go to great length’s to save a man’s life,
‘Cause you don’t want to see them die on the road.
Then tell me how much more should you tell him about the Lord
Because you care about the state of his soul?”
-Da’ T.R.U.T.H., Go, The Faith

May God's peace be with you.