Tales of Faith and Thread

Creating things, originally, was God’s idea.  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1).  He created the sun, moon and stars.  He created plants, trees and all living creatures.  He looked at all He made and was satisfied with it and called it “good.”

And then He created humans in His image.  We are image bearers of God.  He lovingly, carefully, miraculously, with forethought and intention made men and women to bear His likeness.  That blows my mind!  

Have you ever thought about how miraculous the formation of a human body is?   It takes trillions of cells forming into other cells, and all the sequences have to go just right for a human to be produced.  Amazing!

Many of us have a deep desire to create something good with our hands.  It is so much fun to see the end result of the thousand decisions we make when sewing a quilt.  Picking a pattern, deciding which fabrics to use and where exactly they should go for the best outcome.  Picking thread, cutting out the fabric (hopefully in the right sizes the first time), piecing the blocks (my favorite part!), seaming them all together with sashing and borders, layering them with batting, then backing them.  THEN comes the knitting together of the whole thing — the actual quilting where the pieces become one whole beautiful product.  The top, middle and backing get stitched together to make a sturdy yet comfortable quilt that is used to bring warmth to whoever gets to use it.     

It’s a such a satisfying process to me. I look at the end result and (hopefully) say “that’s good!”

If you think about it for a minute, you might realize that we follow God’s pattern when we create a quilt.  Like He took a bazillion nano particles of all shapes and sizes and fuzed them together to form a body with an exterior fleshly appearance, we quilters take fabric, chop it up and sew it back together to make a quilt top (the pretty part of a quilt). Albeit not nearly as complicated as forming a human, quilts can be particularly fussy to put together as each piece has to be added at the right spot or the final product won’t look right.  I suppose that’s true when it comes to making a human too, now that I think of it.  🙂

God added the inner workings (like quilt batting) between the flesh and the spirit. He gave us a heart to beat, kidneys, liver and bowels so that our body would function as intended. He gave us a spirit so that we might know Him.  He then carefully knitted us together in our mother’s womb; you could say He quilted us together to make us a whole human body.  He created us!

Job 10:11 says  “You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.”

Psalm 139:13, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”

I have often wondered why God would make the world with humans.  In our flesh we are flawed sinful creatures and we messed up His good creation with poor decision making and downright selfishness.  But He created us with a purpose; He sees and knows things we don’t know.  He made us with all our character traits, physical appearances and quirks— and then gave us the freedom to choose or reject Him.  He loves us and wants a relationship with us.  He is our Father; we are His children if we decide to love Him back.

I am a mother.  It’s a privilege I don’t take for granted.  As I grew up, I always wanted to be someone’s mom.  Children are a gift that teaches about who God is.  In dealing with my children I learned how deep His love for me must be.  Something happened to me when I heard their first cry.  My heart changed, it grew with a deep love for this crying helpless creature.  At that point I knew I would give my life for them. And that’s what I did.  I gave up my preferences, time, effort, money, sleep, and I don’t remember what else.  All that mattered was that they grew up to know God.  That was my mission.  

God looked at the children He created and decided that He would give His life for us.  That’s why Jesus came.  Love was his motivation.  Mercy, grace and redemption was His gift that stitches us together into a complete child of the King.

As a mom, I learned to deeply appreciate the vastness of God’s love for me.  In the letting them go, as they grew up and moved away, I saw how hard it must have been for God to let His Son leave heaven for a mission that would include much suffering.  There is only one explanation for this: it had to be a love “that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:19), and is as “high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:11).

Today, as you create beautiful things in your home, sewing studio, kitchen, or work place remember that God loves you and created you with a purpose.  May His love fill your heart and fuel you to keep creating good things.