Pelle’s Thoughts

When my family and I came here two years ago, one of the many welcome gifts we received was a quilt.

We had left our home country Germany and moved to Michigan. All we had, when we arrived was what we could fit into four suitcase. The rest of our belongings was still somewhere on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. People welcomed us with many things which helped us to make it through the first two months. The quilt was one of these things, and with the words embroidered into the upper right corner it is still a symbol for all the love we have received from the people around us – here and elsewhere in the world.  It says: “A quilt is a covering of love!”

Maybe this is the reason why this quilt is still one of the most wanted items in our household. I am pretty sure that the quilt comes right behind me in terms of ranking. Although you might have found out by now that I am not really an item. I am way more than that!

However, this quilt is being used many many times: when snuggling in front of the TV set or the fire place, when taking a nap, when enjoying a nice but chilly evening on the back deck. Even when we have a tornado warning the quilt is one of the first things that’s being taken to the basement. If you are going to spend some time in the basement, without power, and with the scary winds outside you want to have something that makes you feel at least a little more comfortable and cozy. This quilt is also being used just to give comfort. If someone in my family is sad or upset they cuddle up underneath the quilt. And it really helps. I don’t know how this works but the quilt really seems to be comforting. It truly is “a covering of love.”

The last time I was cuddled up underneath this quilt I thought that our quilt is not so much different from having faith in God. Having faith in God is also “a covering of love”. Having faith in God makes us trust in God’s love. Having faith in God keeps us spiritually warm during the thunderstorms of our lives. Having faith in God comforts us when we go through rough times.

And: having faith in God has so many different colors and patterns within the bigger pattern – like our quilt.

There are so many different people with so many different personalities and backgrounds who believe in God and in Jesus Christ our savior. There are so many different denominations, there are various doctrines, there are liberals and conservatives, there are male and female people, old and young, red, yellow, brown, black and white people. There are so many different cultures where Christianity is present. And they all have something in common: They are all part of the bigger pattern. They all have the faith in God.

Some people may not like certain colors this “covering of love” is made of. Others may not like certain patterns within the big pattern. But what is most important is the unity. What is most important is the big pattern, which in terms of faith is the common ground: God ‘s love visible in Jesus Christ. A bunch of fabric pieces will always be a bunch of fabric pieces - until you sew them together. Connecting the different pieces is what makes a quilt a quilt.

The unity among Christians is what makes their faith a covering of love – a gift from God which is meant to give comfort, peace, hope and joy.

The beauty of it is that this “covering of love” will never be finished. It is growing. The Holy Spirit is still working on it.  The Holy Spirit is still collecting fabric, colors and patterns, and adding them to what is already there. Christian faith is growing and it is changing within the big pattern. Christian faith is like a quilt that is becoming bigger and bigger by adding new pieces of fabric to it, and by using new patterns which make the quilt stronger and even more beautiful.

And now, after writing so much about faith and love, and fabric and patterns, I am ready to take a nap – snuggled into our wonderful warm and cozy quilt of course!

Yours Pelle

This entry was posted on 19. September 2008 at 16:40 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.