The children of Israel received many commands about how they were to live in the Promised Land. One of those commands was that they needed to put tassels on all of their clothes. They had to put blue thread in these tassels.

Do you know what tassels are? They are bits of thread or wool bundled together and hung at the bottom of clothes. This might seem like a strange command, but the Lord tells us why they had to do this. These tassels were a daily reminder to the people that they had to obey the commandments of the Lord. As they were walking along during the day, the people would look down to see where they were putting their feet. When they looked down, they would see these blue tassels hanging on the bottom of their clothing. And when they saw them, it would remind them that they were God’s special people and they had to obey God’s commandments.

They had to include a blue thread because blue was the colour that was used to show God’s presence. The veil that lead into the Holy Place in the tabernacle was blue to show that God was there. And so the blue in the tassel reminded them of God as well.

You can imagine the children in those days might have asked their dads and mums why they had to wear these tassels. And their parents could tell them it was to remind them to always obey the Lord.

No, even though we don’t wear tassels on our clothes today, we must remember that the Lord always wants us to obey his commandments as well. We may not just do our own thing and ignore what God wants us to do. We have to be careful to obey the Lord. We can’t say, “as long as I love the Lord, as long as my heart is in the right place, it doesn’t matter what I do.” It matters very much what we do. God wants us to obey and follow him.

Reflection with your child:

How can you show that you love and obey the Lord in the clothes you wear, the language you use, the games you play, and in everything you do?

Source: Rev. D. Agema