Have a Onesie?

There’s this weird phenomenon in our church community, a fascination for the humble onesie, one piece pj’s, usually designed for the older lady, worn by… well if you really desire you can see details here.

I actually think they’re dumb and can’t understand why grown men would travel the world with a onesie in their luggage, but anyhoo… I was reminded of this phenomenon by this…

“And here he is, hand-carrying this letter—Onesimus! He was useless to you before; now he’s useful to both of us.” Philemon v11ish,

Onesimus was a little rat bag, a servant for Philemon.  He probably stole something and caused a bit of trouble, then either bolted or got kicked out.  Either way he ended up meeting Paul, heard the message and started to follow Jesus.

In this letter, Paul is urging Philemon to take Onesie back, telling him about how the young lad had changed, and in fact was as special to him as a son.  Now he’s useful!

I bet you know some young people… maybe they’re on your team, maybe they’re in youth at your church… bet there are even some in you kids ministry that always seem to cause trouble.  It’s so easy to feel like giving up on them.  Perhaps we would be too PC to use the term “useless” to discribe them, but we sure wouldn’t call them “useful”!

There’s a few things I’ve noticed…

1. No one, dispite the trouble they’ve caused is really useless… God can do the most amazing thing in peoples hearts and lives.
2. Paul invested a lot of time into this guy.  Is there anyone that I need to invest in, even though the potnetial isn’t blazingly obvious?
3. Philemon probably needed Paul to point out that Onesimus is now useful.  Perhaps I need to get a fresh perspective on some of those tricky ones.

Onesies may look really silly, but (as some will swear by) are well worth the investment!