Camouflage Won’t Cover the Stink

One of the most exciting places I visited when I was young was the old Army-Navy store. That place was paradise. It was the redneck version of Big Lots, except somebody had improved it by adding guns, ammunition, and enough government surplus to outfit half of Buchanan County.

When I got old enough to want camouflage, that was the place to go. The selection reminded me of the old saying about Henry Ford’s Model T: you could have any color you wanted, as long as it was black. At the Army-Navy store, you could have any camouflage you wanted, as long as it was original military fatigues. There weren’t patterns for every tree, bush, and fence post in the woods. You bought what they had and hoped the deer understood what you were trying to accomplish.

Those were also the days when the UMWA was striking, so a fellow wearing camouflage might be headed to the deer woods or a picket line. Depending on his destination, he might have a jackknife or a jack rock.

But we’ll move along before this becomes a labor history lesson.

I picked out some pants that were too big, a button-up shirt that was also too big, and an outstanding hat. I pulled that cap down until there were about two fingers between the top of my nose and the bill. I was a hunting machine. Well, a hunting machine with enough extra material to accommodate several more years of growing.

I’m sure that old camouflage helped break up your outline, but I’m not going to pretend I couldn’t see everybody wearing it. Some of those hunters were about as hidden as a refrigerator sitting in a hayfield.

But my most memorable camouflage experience involved a friend who acquired a full-body set of insulated coveralls. It seemed colder during deer season back then, and those coveralls looked like just the thing. They even had a hood.

That detail becomes important.

One day, he came walking back from the woods, and we stood around talking before getting into the truck.

Something was wrong.

You could smell him.

We accused him of stepping in something, and he started checking his boots.

Then he told us he had needed to use the bathroom on his walk back. “I’ve smelled it too,” he said, “but I can’t find where I stepped in it.”

About that time, one of the boys nearly doubled over laughing.

Finally, he managed to ask: “Did you forget those coveralls had a hood?”

He had.

And that hood had been hanging in a very unfortunate place.

That poor fellow had filled it with something the manufacturer never intended it to hold, then carried it all the way back to the truck.

He was inspecting his boots while the evidence was hanging behind his head.

That is why, to this day, I do not buy used insulated coveralls on the internet.

There are some things “gently used” just doesn’t adequately explain.

But that hunting trip reminds me of something Scripture makes very clear:

We may cover ourselves, but we cannot hide what we are carrying from God.

In fact, camouflage shows up pretty early in the Bible.

After Adam and Eve sinned, they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves. Then they tried to hide among the trees when they heard the Lord in the garden.

You might say Genesis 3 contains the first homemade Realtree advertisement.

But their camouflage did not work. God knew where they were. He knew what they had done. Their leaves could cover their bodies, but nothing could conceal their sin from Him.

Hebrews 4:13 tells us: “No creature is hidden from his sight.”

We can hide things from neighbors. We can keep secrets from friends. We can wear a pleasant expression and convince people that everything is fine. But we never fool God. He sees our actions and our motives. He hears the words we speak and knows the thoughts we never say aloud.

And the One who sees us perfectly is perfectly holy.

When Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, the seraphim declared: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts.”— Isaiah 6:3

Isaiah did not respond by explaining that he was probably better than most people he knew.

He cried out over his own uncleanness.

Standing before the holiness of God, he recognized what he truly was.

That is what we so often miss. We compare ourselves with other people and decide we look pretty good. But God’s holiness is the standard.

A clean-looking pair of coveralls could not change what my friend was carrying. And a respectable appearance cannot make our hearts clean before God. We need more than something to cover the outside. We need the cleansing only God can provide.

One of the beautiful details in Genesis 3 is that God Himself made garments for Adam and Eve and clothed them.

Their homemade covering was not the end of the story. And throughout Scripture, God gives us this wonderful picture of grace: He clothes His people with what they could never provide for themselves.

Isaiah 61:10 describes being clothed with the garments of salvation and covered with the robe of righteousness.

When we come to Christ in repentance and faith, we do not arrive with a spotless record. We come with sin we cannot erase and guilt we cannot wash away.

But Jesus shed His blood for sinners. He died and rose again so that we could be forgiven, reconciled to God, and clothed in righteousness that comes through Him.

Revelation 7:14 describes the redeemed this way: “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

That is something only God could do. Blood ordinarily stains a garment. The blood of Jesus makes these robes white.

The picture points to the cleansing purchased by His sacrifice. Our standing before God rests on what Christ has done, rather than on how successfully we have concealed what we have done.

And those new clothes change how we want to live.

Romans 13:14 tells believers to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 3:12 describes the clothing of a changed life: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

Now we want people to see the difference His grace makes. We want His holiness to shape our choices. We want His forgiveness to show in our willingness to forgive.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:16 that our light should shine so people see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

We are not displaying our goodness for applause. We are living so that others can see the work of our Savior.

The old life reached for camouflage. The new life wants Christ to be seen.

I certainly wanted my camouflage to help me disappear in the woods. But as a Christian, I want the grace of Jesus to be visible in my life.

God already knows everything beneath the covering. The wonderful news is that He invites us to come honestly to Christ, receive His cleansing, and live in the righteousness He provides.

Those old Army-Navy fatigues were several sizes too big.

But the garments of salvation are exactly what a sinner needs.

We cannot camouflage our sin from a holy God. Through Jesus, we can be cleansed—and live so the world sees clearly what He has done for us