Cozy as a Quilt.

Snuggled up in my bed last night chatting with God I found myself beholding the overwhelming work of friendships in my life. I began to wonder before the Lord how it is that He has given me so many wonderful friends that not only span over years but across various continents as well. I have always been the kind of person who finds it hard to withhold love from those around me and therefore also have a hard time forgetting people or “letting them go” as I have been urged to time and again.

I just can't do it. I was asking God how it is that He has deemed me worthy of being connected with the kind of fabulous people that have crossed my path over the years. These relationships have served to speak truth into the very fabric of who I am, demonstrate a clearer picture of who God is and what He is like and in general fill the pages of my mind with more delicious memories that I could ever finish reading.

As I listened, God flooded my mind with the sweetest picture that not only brought clarity to what relationships such as these mean to Him, but also gave me passion to carry on spilling out His love on those I call friends. God showed me a picture of a cozy, well-loved, yet worn out quilt. The kind that is passed down from generation to generation and grows in beauty as the colours fade and the thread grows thin. This quilt represents the way that God intends my life to be knit together with those around me. Each square is a unique, familiar, slightly worn and real person that God has so intricately knitted my heart to. This quilt has been sown over the years with each loving expression that the Holy Spirit has poured out of me onto those around me.

As His grace, mercy, compassion, love, forgiveness and every delightful aspect of His character is given room to grow and take root in my life, it becomes a thread that reaches out and sews in another stitch of my heart to my friends. The stunning and gentle thread that is the Holy Spirit at work in our lives draws us together. It tells with every loving stitch that you and I belong to something bigger. We each play a role in this family where the architect is the one who made us all. He knows how we fit together to provide comfort, strength, and beauty in such a way as to bring Him glory. The Maker of this quilt takes great pride in His workmanship and in the end, knows that the stitches will work together to sew something that will remain. This quilt will bring Him glory and honour into all eternity.

As I took time to examine each square of relationship that God has so kindly allowed my heart to be knitted to, I found myself undone with gratitude. I began to see the reason I just love loving people. God has deposited that love in my heart for the purpose of withdrawing it to lavish on those around me. It is not that I am exceptionally loving, it is that my Father is. What a gift to not have to go this road alone, a lone quilt square vulnerable and worn. God has knit our hearts together and the truth is whether it's the years or miles that separate us in the physical, you are still stuck with me.

I love you friends.

So it was with this delightful picture firmly in my mind that I cozied up with overwhelming thankfulness for those God has allowed me to call friends. I was warmed by the memories, encouraged by words spoken, and amazed at the ways you have reached out to me. God's work is stunning indeed.