I have a list of “someday” things…You know, someday I am going to __________________. (You fill in the blank.) I bet you have one too. Every once in a while, I manage to cross something off the list. Like the year I learned how to quilt. I am still learning a lot about quilting, colors, fabrics, patterns, different techniques. I find it fascinating how the same pattern can look so different just by changing the color of fabric. (See the picture. Same directions just different color placement.) As I sew, I am learning a lot about life and God. We have lots of talks, God & I. As in quilting, you have to trust the instructions God gives you – especially when they don’t make sense.
A quilter takes different colors, textures, and patterns to form a beautiful design that brings comfort and warmth. The Lord does the same thing – if we let Him – He takes the darks and lights of our life, the rough and the smooth, the harsh and the soft, the plain and the fancy and fits them into a beautiful pattern that is our life and relationship with Him and with others. Even the ugliest of fabrics become part of a beautiful quilt by combining it with other colors. Both are needed. He does the same with us. We need to place our complete trust in the Lord and let Him fit the pieces of our life together. A piece of fabric by itself, no matter how colorful or not, large or small, pretty or not, is just that – a piece of fabric. But let Him take all the darks and lights and form a beautiful kaleidoscope of a life of love, hope, joy and peace with Him.
When I started my first quilt, I could not imagine how the many colors and patterns could possibly come together to form a pretty design. Some of the colors I loved, some I did not and wished they were not a part of the quilt. But I trusted in the process, I trusted the instructions. Combined with the other fabrics of color and size, it became a beautiful quilt of warmth and comfort. Such can be the sorrows and joys, the successes and failures, the healing and wholeness of life. Let him use the colors of your life – colors of white, innocence, God the Creator; red, strength, joy and happiness, blood of Christ; purple, mourning, humility and suffering; green, nature, hope and renewal; black, of grief and sorrow; blue, loyalty, throne of God; and yellow, Giver of life. He uses these colors to stitch a quilt of life. A quilt of life: using the good times and bad, representing His comfort, warmth and peace – the fabric of faith, the Quilt of Life.
Your church needs you. The Laity are the backbone of the church. How is God calling your pieces of fabric to stitch into the church mission and ministry? Every piece is important, every color is important, every stitch is important. It takes all of us serving together to create a ministry of warmth and comfort. How is God Nudging you? Good things happen when we trust and follow His instructions.