Are You Crazy? …Quilt

Have y’all ever seen a Crazy Quilt? I am an avid lover of thrift stores, antique stores, junk stores and auctions because of the treasures that I find there.  I love anything with a story. The older I get the more of an appreciation I have for these types of things, and I ALWAYS am drawn toward crazy quilts when I see them.  I am learning to quilt, and one of these days I am going to try my hand at piecing one of these wonderful creations.

Quilts began in a time when nothing went to waste.  Everything was re-purposed. There was a time when something had outlived its usefulness, it was saved, re-purposed, and made useful again.  It was the epitome of recycling and good old-fashioned practicality.

Last weekend I purchased an old quilt that was backed with feed sacks!  What a novel thought in our disposable society.  Those feed sacks originally came filled with grain to feed the livestock on a family farm. Then when they were empty, instead of putting them in the trash (like we would today) they were used as pieces of clothing, or in this case as the back to a quilt that would keep a family warm in the winter. I think I love the back as much as I do the front!  Talk about being a good steward of what the Lord has given you!

My favorite crazy quilts are the Victorian style ones made from velvets and silks and other exotic fabrics, with buttons, beads, ribbons, lace, fringe, and embroidery.  I think they are beautiful and no two are ever the same.

They are made from pieces and scraps that are left over, or from things that were once useful, but are now worn out, or from beautiful things that came apart from time or use. Snippets and fragments that really don’t look like much by themselves are put together in a patchwork to make something extraordinary and one of a kind.

Exodus says that God is Jehovah Rapha, “the Lord Who heals you.” In my studies, I have read that a more literal translation of that is “The One Who stitches (or mends) you back together.” RAPHA comes from the sound that the looms of the day would make. They tied rocks or weights on some of the fibers to help them weave, and when the looms got going “rapha” was the sound the weights made when they banged together. He is the Lord that stitches me back together!  Hallelujah!

It struck me this morning, that I must look like a CRAZY QUILT by now. LOL!

He has mended me here and there. Taken this piece and that piece and stitched them together. He has taken this part that was useful and used for practical applications and put it together with this piece that was mostly just decoration.  He has taken a piece that was tattered and torn, worn out and frazzled, added a part that was hurt and frayed, and a scrap that was just ripped loose during a fit of anger or grief or desperation, and connected them…and so on and so on. All fitted perfectly together. And it won’t ever be finished this side of eternity. There are always more pieces in the scrap pile. (“Look! There is the piece from the time in my life when I was heartbroken and grieving! It looked useless, but we can use it now! It goes right here!”) Romans 8:28 says “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”

I suppose it’s a weird illustration, but it made me laugh and gave me joy. He reminded me that NOTHING I go through, not even when I have strayed from the path, will go to waste (like in John 6:12).  He has a beautiful plan for my life – scraps and all.  Maybe that’s the reason I’m drawn to crazy quilts, I am one!

Philippians 2:13   For the One working in you is God — both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

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