When Life Gives You Scraps…
My Mom enjoyed a variety of crafts, but the piece-work of quilting was one of her favorites. She had a quaint applique piece in the cozy “back room” with one of her favorite sayings, “When life gives you scraps, make quilts.” This homey statement captures some of the qualities I most admire in quilts: these often stunningly beautiful works of art can be formed from the remnants, the leftover bits, the scraps that remain of something otherwise worn out, used up, stained, outgrown. Quilts can be a means of breathing new life into tired threads, transforming humble odds and ends into something elegant, playing color and pattern in intriguing combinations, joining meager pieces into an abundant whole. This year’s ornament, while not quilted per se, is a nod to those features: constructed of four small strips of cloth, barely half a yard of fabric altogether in each star, with varied colors and patterns accenting and complimenting each other.
A similar transformation happens when we put our lives in God’s hands, turning over the controls as we let him have his way in his rightful place as Lord of our lives. How about you? Has life given you scraps? Maybe you’ve even shredded the fabric yourself in choices you now regret. Either way you’re surrounded by tattered dreams, ragged relationships, and holey hopes. I know what that feels like, and here’s my advice: take the whole heap straight to Jesus, the master artist who created this whole world. He’s also the one who invaded Earth a couple thousand years ago for one mind-blowing reason: to pay the penalty for our sins through his death on the cross. Because he loved us so much, he provided for us what we never could, peace with God, by wiping clean our sin debt. If you accept that gift—accept that his death was for your debt—then you will have that peace. Peace that will allow you to stop frantically trying to stitch together the threadbare scraps of your life into an impressive masterpiece of your own making, and instead entrust those scraps to the hands of the Master.
But maybe your life doesn’t seem all that. . .scrappy. Maybe things are going okay, and any regrets are a distant memory. That’s okay—Jesus’ sacrifice is for everyone who sees themselves as a sinner in need of forgiveness before a holy God. And just as many modern quilters purchase brand new fabric to cut up, arrange and piece together into imaginative and stunning blocks, so too God himself can transform any life surrendered to him. I invite you to see what he will make of your life, quite possibly in patterns and purposes that you’ve never dreamed of!
It has been my pleasure to share with you my Mom’s tradition of making hand-made ornaments for my friends and family. I wish you peace and joy this holiday season—peace with God through trusting his sacrifice and the joy of watching his design take shape in your life through your surrender to him.