A WARM BLANKET

Yarn can be used as a cat toy or something to tie around a finger to remind us to buy milk. That same yarn, when placed in skilled hands, can become a colorful crocheted blanket or a knitted sweater. When blue yarn and yellow yarn are placed side by side, they may seem like a mismatch. Yet knitted together they can be a work of art. A single strand is pulled apart easily, but combined strands are strong. A skein of yarn does little to bring warmth, but turned into a crocheted coverlet, that skein can warm the shoulders of those who are cold. Just as a field of flowers may wave with various shapes and hues of colours, the body of Christ is sprinkled with differences. When we stand side by side, our differences may seem like a mismatch, but the common ground is a love for God and a desire to please him. When we come together in unity, the church is strengthened and we can bring beauty and warmth into the lives of others.

LORD, help me to recognize that you are the master artist. You have created us the way a painter fashions a masterpiece. The differences I have stumbled over may be the very things you needed to create a work of art that can minister to a diverse and hurting world.

THERE CAN BE NO UNITY, NO DELIGHT OF LOVE, NO HARMONY, NO GOOD BEING, WHERE THERE IS BUT ONE. TWO AT LEAST ARE NEEDED FOR ONENESS.George Macdonald (1824–1905)