What Quilts Your Heart?

Recently I was reading one of Scott Russell Sanders' book, A Private History of Awe, that is a memoir about his life. I like the way he uses words to describe what he sess. Turning page after page, I felt comfort in my heart as he described in detail where he lived and people he encountered.

"How can words bring comfort?" I wondered, especially since I was unfamiliar with the places he described and I have never met him.

God can speak and reach our hearts in many ways. Some find peace at the ocean or walking through the woods. Others through sewing and piecing quilts, like the ladies in every church Mike pastored even when he was at Duke, found comfort emerging from the work of their hands and companionship of others working on a common project.

Well-written sentences that reflect the heart of the author can offer comfort to someone like me who appreciates the way words come together to express thoughts, ideas or describe people or places.

As I continued reading, it wasn't so much his memories, but the depth of self that he brought to his past where comfort emerged. He was not describing hardship or sentimentality, but a warmth and depth of feeling related to his surroundings.

"This writing quilts my heart," I thought, meaning the gathering and recording of thoughts bound together with the sensitivity and of his writing style went right to my heart, mirroring the flow of a thread-filled needle entering and exiting two layers of cloth and batting.

For many years I made quilts and found great joy and comfort from this craft. Now "piecing" together words bound with God's blessing and inspiration brings comfort and peace.

What quilts your heart? What life experiences do you find to bind together? Whatever moves in and through your heart to soothe and mend or celebrate is bound together by God's love.

Prayer: God, everyday we gather pieces of what we experience. Sometime we are comforted, while other moments bring sadness, discouragement. All are part of your kingdom and come from our interactions and experiences. Help us bring all of our pieces, binding them with your love, to quilt our hearts with your presence that rests in all. Amen.

Image by Jude Hill, Creative Commons via Flickr.