Re: Stitch
Albert Bogle
January 01, 2025
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1 Samuel 2: 18-21 (NRSVA)
18 Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod. 19 His mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20 Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, ‘May the Lord repay you with children by this woman for the gift that she made to the Lord’; and then they would return to their home.
21 And the Lord took note of Hannah; she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.
In these four verses the story of Hannah’s generosity and love is expressed. Her story of expectation and hopefulness is re-stitched into a story that began with hopelessness and disappointment. It seems to me that often that is the way of life. Don’t allow the disappointments of the past year to rob you of a much richer. deeper story of hope and generosity. It will be yours also if you let Hannah’s story speak into your life today.
It’s not an easy story, I’m sure Hannah’s heart broke in pieces each year as she left the child she had longed for, yet somehow in the midst of her sacrificial generosity she also saw a young man grow into a mighty prophet of Israel. Each year she stitched a new garment full of grace and love.
There is no sacrifice that we make out of love that does not in the end bear fruit. There is no prayer stitched out in love that is ever ineffective.
Prayer:
Weaver God,
Creator of beauty and meaning
We offer you the needle and threads of our lives
Stitch us into your story of grace and love
Take our friends and family
And all who we will touch this year;
The needlework of our lives
The disappointments and hurts
The mistakes and broken threads
The promises and the possibilities
The visions and the dreams
The secrets and the sacrifices
Weave us all into your salvation history,
with threads of everlasting love.
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