I learned a great deal about “SIZES” working at Breslauer’s Department Store 1236 East 53rd Street in Hyde Park (Chicago.)

The OWNERS were the “neatest couple ever” Stevie and Gus BRESLAUER…they owned the department store since BEFORE the depression began.

As a matter of fact, Stevie worked there until the age of 91, 68 years of work that she LOVED and ADORED.

“If you’ve got time to LEAN, you’ve got time to CLEAN,” she would tell ALL the employees. There was NO IDLE TIME when you worked for them!

We had a Men’s department, Women’s department, Post Office, Jewelry, Cologne and a Shoe Department. We also sold Dry Goods and had a Pattern department…selling Simplicity, Butterick, Vogue and McCall patterns.

When you worked in their store, you worked the entire store. It was a “sweet” job!

If there were absolutely NO customers, you WASHED display cases (with vinegar and water and wiped them with down with newspaper) or did “window design” or “wrapped boxes for Christmas gifts”…all year round…

It was there I learned about misses standard sizes, petite standard sizes, Junior sizes, Junior plus sizes, Plus standard sizes…panty sizes, bra sizes, alpha sizes, numeric sizes, European sizes, waist and hip sizes.

Back in the day I could sell panty hose and women’s hosiery like there was no tomorrow…(in all the various sizes and shades of color)…Taupe was a big color, then on the Southside of Chicago.

Men were easy: It was basically, Sleeve length, neck size, chest size, inseam and waist.  Tops ran XS-XXL.

Shoe sizes were pretty easy, especially using the old sliding metal Brannock Foot Measuring Devices and the old shoe fitting stools. Remember how they measured both your width and your length!  It was a pretty cool tool!  Hush Puppies were a big seller in the mid 70’s…and they are still in existence today!

Well all of this is just in the way to background…

Because somehow, “SIZE” ended up getting MIXED UP with “FAITH.”

The disciples wanted more faith…increased faith…a bigger size…they wanted MORE.

If you’re thinking this saying about FAITH and MUSTARD SEEDS sounds familiar, you’re right. We also hear Jesus make this statement in the Gospel of MATTHEW.

But Matthew puts Jesus in a different setting than Luke does for this teaching. 

In Matthew 17, Jesus has just cast out a demon that the disciples couldn’t get to budge. When they ask him why they couldn’t get rid of the demon, he tells them, “Because of your LITTLE FAITH.

For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

But here in Luke’s gospel, Jesus is answering the disciples’ REQUEST for INCREASED faith.

Jesus had just been teaching them about forgiveness, and the importance of forgiving. Perhaps they realized that the kind of forgiveness Jesus was asking them to offer required MORE faith than they had.

At least the disciples understood that faith wasn’t something they could MANUFACTURE on their own.

They had figured out that it doesn’t develop by following a “Greater Faith in Thirty Days Plan.” They knew that faith is “a gift from God.”

Jesus says it doesn’t take MUCH faith to do great things.

“The TINIEST amount of faith” can plant a tree in the ocean, or move a mountain from one place to another. In Matthew’s version, it sounds like Jesus is CHIDING the disciples for having “so LITTLE faith,” but here in Luke we get a little different slant.

Jesus doesn’t tell the disciples “how to get more faith”. He doesn’t give the disciples a “discipleship plan” or ask them to write in their “faith building journals” nor tell them to seek out “a faith mentor.”

Instead of waving “a magic wand” and saying, “Poof, have more faith,” Jesus says, “It doesn’t TAKE MUCH faith to do what you need to do.” 

In other words, “You have plenty right NOW.” Rely on IT.  Use IT.

You have ENOUGH faith. It doesn’t take much. God has already given you all the faith you need. Be thankful to God for what you have.  When it comes to faith, there is no such thing as SIZE.  ONE SIZE actually does fit all.   Amen.