The above picture is part of my very favorite blanket, my Bears/Cubs quilt. Amy made for me our first year together and gave to me as a Christmas gift the day after we got engaged. I use this blanket basically every single day. I take naps with it. I take it to camp with me and it will be traveling on the mission trip this summer with me. My dogs lay on it. Heck, when I took this picture, my dog Henry was laying on the other end of it. It is something very special to me.
However, over time, it started to show its wear. There were tears in the panels, wear along the stitching, and I was getting worried that I or the dogs were going to damage it enough that it would be hard to use. But thankfully, I had an angel on my side: Mary Slind. I took the quilt to Mary to have her patch it up for me, to fix all the tears, shore up the seams, get it back to good working order. And Mary fixed it, patched it up, made it almost like new.
My quilt is a lot like the relationships in our lives. We have many of them and many of them are very important. But sometimes, over time, those relationships sometimes get frayed. Sometimes they get ripped apart. Sometimes they seem like they might never be able to be repaired. Sometimes the relationship that is the most damaged is our relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
However, that same Savior is the one who helps mend our torn relationships because our Savior Jesus Christ is one of forgiveness. Jesus goes to the cross to mend our relationship with him. Jesus defeats sin and death and offers us his grace so that we might be in right relationship with him. And because we receive that forgiveness, we in turn can forgive others. Christ enters into our lives to show us how to repair and sew back up our damaged relationships, restoring our quilt of life to wholeness. God sends us the Holy Spirit to help us not only seek forgiveness, but also to forgive, so that our relationships can be restored.
I am thankful that my quilt is patched up and fixed. But I am more thankful for the way that Christ helps to fix my relationships in life, most especially with him, for our God is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and ready to forgive all those who call on his name. For that we can say, “Thanks be to God!” Amen