My grandmother's quilt reigns on its bed throne. It has been with me as long as I can remember, fashioned from scraps of materials carefully stitched together and pieced into a pattern of beauty.

My grandmother, although in her early 70s, had been in deteriorating health. This quilt was her final effort, a contribution to her church bazaar. When no one purchased it, my mother, who had watched grandma's struggle to finish the sewing, decided to buy it for me. Mom carefully placed it into the huge cedar chest in our attic. It marked the beginning of my "hope chest" of items to be brought into my marriage.

Strange ingredients were combined to create the quilt: parts of barely remembered and mostly faded curtains, several snips from a dress I once had, odds and ends from the family rag bag. Nothing was wasted; everything was transformed from the ordinary and discarded into a lovely piece of treasured wonder.

My fingers often trace the delicate stitches carefully worked by my grandmother's hands. Those fine threads are the glue that binds the haphazard pieces together and mysteriously connects our generations as well. The great time and care spent recycling and recreating the old and worn into the new and useful still amaze me.

How like our Master-Creator, transforming our worn and broken pieces into something beautiful. God weaves and works His precision and pattern, fashioning us into a useful community. We are sewn and pieced together with stitches of His love, changed into a showpiece of His craftsmanship. No longer separate scraps without purpose, we can join Peter and say, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light (1 Peter 1:9).

Oh sisters, what colorful and wondrous quilts we are! Our tender God has lovingly and with great skill designed us to be a reflection of His workmanship. Let us bring Him honor and praise Him with our new lives of color and service!