A Christmas Blessing

I was recently contacted by a young mother of 6 who told me her husband has just passed a way a few weeks before. She said she had her husbands clothes and wanted to have memory quilts for her children made as Christmas gifts. I didn't ask questions or hesitate, I immediately told her I would be honored to make them for her and made arrangements to meet. I prayed before our meeting, just for strength to give comfort to her and to have the right words to say when needed. She was a lovely young woman and as expected, she had a hard time leaving the clothes with me, it had only been a few weeks. I assured her I would take care of them and make something beautiful for them to have memories for years to come. She became visibly upset and I hugged her and told her everything would be fine.

I knew two things:

1) This was a God thing, and pre-arranged only by Him

2) There was no way she could ever afford 6 quilts, even if I just charged her for supplies, it would be more than most anyone could reasonably afford, let alone a recent widow with 6 children.

I discussed it with my quilting friend and we decided that we wanted to do it as a gift to her, at no charge. We got to work and above are the quilts we finished just a short time later.

We have prayed over each quilt as we made them and will pray for them again before gifting them to her. This task that seemed overwhelming at first, became a blessing to me without even expecting it. Her story resonated with me in many ways, I could relate.

When I was 12 my step-dad left our family and my mom was left with six kids at a very young age. I remember the struggles we had financially and emotionally. Even though there was not a physical death for us, our dad did leave us and we were alone, he was gone. This brought back a flood of memories for me and I wanted to do something nice for her, something to help ease the sting of loss and something to bring comfort to them all. The one thing I knew I could do is to make her beautiful quilts for her children and we did.

This is why I make memory quilts. This is what God has designed me to do, it IS my purpose. I thank Him for my gift and pray that I can be blessed by many others in need of a quilt.