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Blog
The Patchwork Quilt
Written by Sabrina Nino de Campos, Iron Rose Sister Ministries Volunteer
My grandmother was a great seamstress. When I was a child I watched her for hours and hours while she worked in front of the television. When she passed away, my mother took as a souvenir some things that she had worked on. One of those souvenirs, my favorite one, was a quilt made with many, many patchwork pieces put together. It wasn't cold enough where we lived for me to fall asleep with something like that, but I liked it anyway. Besides being very colorful with its different little pieces, it brought me feelings of peace and memories of my grandmother.
Looking at the Bible, we can see how God loves to bring together people who are so different and special to share His plan, to be part of the great story He was preparing for us. Men, women, and even animals and nature.
And even after He has fulfilled His plan of love through the sacrifice of Jesus, God continues to bring different people together for the glory of His kingdom.
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” (1 John 4:10-12)
If we look around us, at our brothers and sisters, we see how different we are, each one of us a special piece made by God. He, in His great plan, in His great love, not only gave Christ to us for the forgiveness of our sins, but also gifted us companions that we have in faith. We are one big patchwork quilt. Each one connected, forming part of the great family that God has given us.
By fulfilling our individual purpose, we also fulfill a purpose as a whole. John says that if we love one another, not only does God abide in us, but His love is manifest among us fully and completely. God had a purpose with the church, the brotherhood that He gives us is a piece of His full and complete love for us. We not only thank Him for loving us, but also for giving us a constant reminder of His love for us. Like a patchwork quilt, we can cover ourselves and be protected, and feel loved and cared for, because we know that the love of each different patch comes from the same Source, which is our Savior and beloved Lord.
The Escalator
Written by Nilaurys Garcia, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister in Chile
Some places have elevators and others have stairs or escalators. Climbing stairs can be difficult for children, elderly, or a person who has bodily ailments. Think for a second about the effort that you put forth to climb a staircase.
A couple of weeks ago, while I was talking with a friend, I mentioned to her that Christian life is like climbing a descending escalator (we have known each other for more than 15 years, so she let out a laugh; she knows that I like examples and expected me to elaborate on the idea). Some of you will not understand the image that I am proposing, but let me explain it to you. Climbing up escalators that are descending is a little complicated. There is a movement that takes us down no matter how much we try to go up, and no matter how great of a willpower we have, but if we keep trying and establish a constant rhythm of steps, we can keep going up and even get to the top after sweating a little bit. However, what happens if we get distracted or stumble? What is most likely is that the escalator will drag us down a couple steps, or if we really lose the rhythm, we may have to start back at square one.
Our spiritual life is similar to that idea of climbing an escalator which is going down. If we make an effort (if we study the word, pray, stay strong, have communion with the church), we can constantly go up and grow in our daily walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. It becomes easy to be a Christian when I feel full of the kindness and the love of God. It is much easier to wait patiently in city traffic when I remember that the joy of the Lord is my strength, and it’s easier to get up in the morning with a thankful heart because God has gifted me with a new day. But when we let other things distract us and make us lose focus, we take the wrong steps. We risk falling to the bottom of the escalator and having to start over…I forget the joy of the new day and I drift away from the One that gave himself over for me.
We have heard many times about these characteristics that Peter asks us to strive for: “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love” (2 Peter 1:5-7 NIV). All of these characteristics will make us grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and will keep us from being useless and unproductive (v. 8). If we go back to the image of the escalator, we are constantly making an effort to add these things to our faith (climbing the escalator).
Even though this escalator may be an individual path, let us think of all of us climbing. Communion with the church is important. We are all encouraging each other to take the next step. No matter what your current status is, married, single, we are all on this path, we are encouraging others and receiving their support as we form part of this great body that has Jesus as our head.
