While preparing to go on sabbatical, I asked our congregation’s quilters to help me envision a quilting project for the whole congregation. I wanted each church member to donate a piece of fabric that could be sewn together into a community quilt. At first our expert quilters didn’t like this idea. They doubted that the members of the congregation could be trusted to pick fabric that coordinated with their plans. They even suggested I just assign a color and be done with it. I explained that having a variety of colors and patterns was the point of the project. Our congregation’s quilters were kind enough to give it a try, with a few reasonable boundaries.
Sure enough, people chose fabrics with all sorts of patterns and colors. Yet when the quilters laid the squares around the central cross, everything came together. Everyone is proud of the community quilt that now hangs in our church entry. A visual symbol, it reminds us of how our individual gifts and talents are gathered into God’s great pattern for the church.
This message is excerpted from the Bible study “Crafted in Christ” by Katie Hines-Shah in the May/June 2022 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate Onesimos Nesib, translator, evangelist, 1931.
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