Friday, January 17, 2014 By: Julie

God is a Seamstress

                I am a seamstress.    Not because I always dreamed of being a seamstress. I am a seamstress because God shared his heart with me – and He is a seamstress.    I love to sit at my sewing machine and watch as the scraps of fabric and thread come together to create something new – something beautiful, something that has purpose.  

                I am not sure if God had a sewing machine, or if He used a needle and thread.  I am not sure how that worked in the beginning when God created the universe. Genesis 3:21 says:  “And the Lord God ,MADE  garments of skins for the man and for his wife and clothed them.”   God MADE the garments for Adam and Eve.  In the other parts of the creation story, God SPOKE the creation into being.    How amazing is it that God is so powerful that He could SPEAK and hummingbird, whales, the sun, the moon – everything -  came into being.   That is a demonstration of something that we can’t even begin to understand.   Our human speech can be heard from across a room, through a cell phone, even through a wall.  Speaking doesn’t usually require the kind of close intimacy that is required with a hand’s on task.
I love the Genesis stories of God using His hands.  When God created Man, he used His hands.  He scooped up the dirt and breathed life into Adam.   In the beginning – God got his hands dirty.  It is such a picture of a gracious God who bent down from Heaven and got dirt on His hands.   God knew that Adam and Eve were also going to get their hands dirty when they disobeyed Him and picked the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Life.  
When God created Adam and Eve, He created them to live in perfect harmony with Him.   Adam and Eve actually walked and talked with God in the Garden – and enjoyed perfect fellowship with Him.  After Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of Life, they realized for the first time that they had rebelled against God.  They felt naked and ashamed - so they hid.  But, God in His mercy already had a plan.  He already had His sleeves rolled up, ready to get His hands dirty so that He could come to the rescue.
 I discovered my passion for sewing during a season when it seemed like there was nothing left of my life but scraps.   During this long, heartbreaking season, I was struggling to care for my late husband as he died a slow, painful death from a rare form of cancer.  Creating something beautiful out of the scraps of fabric and thread gave me a way to find some sort of peace in the midst of an extremely chaotic situation.   Now when I sit and sew, my hands automatically know what to do, it comes second nature to me. Much like a musician or a painter.  My hands and my heart are wired together through a God given gift.
And so it is with God.  When He MADE the garments for Adam and Eve, His hands knew what to do because His hands and His heart are wired together – in love.  The garments God made for Adam and Eve weren’t cheap or free – they cost God everything.  When God used skins to make the garments, He had to sacrifice/kill an animal to get the skins.    Adam and Eve’s new garments were a preview of the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE that God would use to create new garments for you and me because of our sin.
Jesus also got His hands dirty for me and you.  He was obedient to His father ‘s will and allowed his hands to be nailed to a cross.  A cross that would be the instrument of his death.  But neither the cross nor the grave had authority over Jesus.  God redeemed Jesus from the grave.  And through that redemption, we are clothed in new clothes, new life. 
Isaiah 61: 10:  “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God;
For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the garments of righteousness.  He has covered me with the garments of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
     When I sin – again – with that same anger, pride, or other things I struggle with – I don’t have to hide from God.   I go to God in repentance and ask Him to give me new garments.
And He does: He gives me Jesus.   And that makes me happy.

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