Sew Like the Wind
March 31, 2020
By Pam Chun
My four sisters and I grew up sewing. We started with our mother’s circa 1940s Elna sewing machine and expanded to 3 fancy Bernina machines that could hem, overlock, embroider, and more. Many Saturdays you could find two or three of us with pins, needles, and scissors in hand sewing our own dresses, pants, and mu‘umu‘u. Yes, we even sewed our prom dresses. No other girl at the prom could accuse us of having the same gown!
So this weekend when my sister Sonya shared that her friend in Boston was creating a sewing prototype to sew masks for COVID-19 health care workers, her rally cry was: “Get out the Berninas! We were all well-equipped to sew!”
Now, many of you may not feel equipped to sew. You may, like me, not even own a sewing machine. Instead, we may feel helpless amid the inescapable news about the coronavirus. And while social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is good, some of us may feel like our hands are tied.
But don’t let that stop us.
We all have gifts that God has given us: encouragement, helping, listening, gardening, cleaning, cooking, counseling, caring, teaching. Some of us have computer skills, others musical. Some of us are good with our hands, others good with our hearts.
The apostle Paul puts it this way:
6 In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So, if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. 7 If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. 8 If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. (Roman 12:6-8 NLT)
There is no better time to put our gifts to use than now. But how?
Jesus told his disciples: The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Luke 10:2)
Jesus says to ask. Ask the Lord of the harvest: “What have you equipped me to do? What can I do well?” And then, Jesus says ask again. Ask the Lord to send. Send us as workers into his harvest field.
I am reminded of one of Dan’s and my favorite movies from the 1980’s, The Three Amigos. In this corny comedy, Steve Martin, Chevy Chase, and Martin Short play three aging movie stars who are called to save a Mexican village from the greedy El Guapo. In the moment of crisis, when El Guapo and his men are galloping towards the village to decimate the people, Martin Short asks the villagers, “What is it that this town really does well?”
Their answer: “We can sew! Sew like the wind!” So they do. And they save their village.
Maybe you and I can’t sew. But we can sow. We can sow hope, seeds of faith, encouraging words, kindness, generosity, mercy, and goodness in a world that is empty of hope, lacking faith, discouraged and does not know the goodness and mercy of God.
In whatever we do today, in the little and the big, with whomever we talk, text or email, let’s sow. Sow like the wind!
Prayer: Jesus, Lord of the harvest, Savior of the world, and Redeemer of our lives — thank You for the talents and giftedness that You have put in our hands. Show us throughout this day how we can sow Your hope in others and in our world. Some of us need that hope sown into our own hearts, first. You know that and you love us. Thank You that we have an imperishable hope and that “hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” (Rom 5:5). We praise You. We believe in Your promises. We hold fast to Your love.
Note: If you do sew or would like to contribute to filling the gap in medical face masks, you might want to check out this article.