Our Quest for Faithful Presence
Dear St Luke’s,
It’s quilt and health kit blessing Sunday! I don’t know about you but I love seeing the quilts and health kits draped over the pews throughout our sanctuary. At least to me, there is something warm and homey in seeing the quilts that kinda looks like love.
We’re living in an era of designer quilts. Often people carefully choose their colors and fabrics and make quite artsy quilts. And these quilts can be stunning. I was at an art gallery in Canada earlier this year and it had an exhibit of quilts that looked more like paintings than something you’d wrap yourself with on a cold night. In fact, I have an art quilt hanging on the wall in my living room, it’s a Piet Mondrian inspired interpretation of a map of my Lake Hills neighborhood… my sister-in-law made for me.
Both of my grandmothers were quilters. The quilts of my maternal grandmother also had an artistic flair. But my paternal grandmother was more pragmatic. She lived on a small farm in Canada, had twelve kids – my dad was number eight – and quilts were a necessity. Instead of designer fabrics she used whatever she had. Her literal scrappiness made for a creative blending of colors, patterns, and textures, yet every one of those quilts were made with love; each had its own beauty. I loved the weight of my grandmother’s quilts. Crawling under one felt like a big hug.
I also like that our quilt blessing takes place in the season of Easter. At least metaphorically a quilt symbolizes new life for old fabrics… “not enough to make a shirt or a skirt, but enough to be part of a quilt.” God using the small and seemingly insignificant things to make known grace and beauty.
In today’s dominant culture “big” and “new” are often assumed to be best… not so in God’s economy. As I’m writing, Dolly Parton’s old song, “Coat of Many Colors” comes to mind, and she sings it better than I could ever say it. God has a way of delighting in, and revealing Godself through the small, the particular, and the seemingly insignificant; bringing it all together in Christ.
Today as you go about your day, I pray you welcome each small opportunity to offer a patch of kindness, some edging of empathy, or a stitch belonging as the Divine gift that it is. Maybe God is a quilt maker and we are small pieces of fabric… just enough for this moment and this place, and part of something much bigger that rests in God’s hands.
After our worship gathering, instead of having a Community Forum, it’s all hands-on deck to help fold and box up more than one hundred quilts.
Remember friend, you are loved, and you are not alone.
Peace, dwight
