Me:  What a nice rug!

Prodigal:  It is my friend’s and she picked it out.

Me:  Well I would say she’s got plenty of arrows in her quiver.

Prodigal:  I would agree!

 

This is from the book Voices of the Faithful by Beth Moore

In a small town high in an Andean valley, exquisite wool rugs are made entirely by hand.  Freshly shorn sheep’s wool is first washed in a vat of water heated over an open fire.  Detergent is added to remove natural oils and grime as a wooden paddle is used to stir.  The workers then rinse the wool in the river.

Then, the craftsmen examine the wool.  They set aside the purest white wool to be used in its natural color.  The wool that is not pure white is placed in a vat and heated again.  Dye is added to the flawed wool to make the bright colors needed.

After the dye process, the wool is hand-spun into thread.  The finished rug will have at least 60,000 hand-tied knots per square meter.  Brilliant masterpieces of color and design are made of the pure wool and the wool that was once flawed.  The dye covers the flaws and makes the wool attractive and useful.

I look at my life and see many failures.  However, just like the wool that could not meet the standards of pure white, I can still have value.  God has not only forgiven my sins, He covers my flaws with Himself, and I am made beautiful and useful.  As I daily submit to Him, I become part of the design of His perfect will.

There is no one of us whose life is too flawed with sin to be used by God.  Our value comes not from who or what we are, but from what God makes us.

 

Donna, South America

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Titus 3:5-6

 

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org