Remnant
When I was a little girl, my grandmother spent hours piecing and stitching quilts. Unlike modern quilters that purchase textiles to create artistic show pieces in specific color schemes, my grandmother saved every remnant of material that showed potential for upcycling. Her creative reuse of scrap materials in the stitching of quilts kept us warm on many a cold night and served other ingenious purposes as well. I learned my colors resting on a hand pieced quilt tossed across the bed at nap time. She lulled me to sleep pointing to the colored blocks of the quilt as she named, “Blue, red, green, yellow…” My numbers followed as she chimed, “One quilt piece, two, three and four. Sew them together and then make one more…” Running a hand across the fabric of one of those old worn quilts transports me back to a cozier time of life. For amongst the blocks, I see remnants of childhood dresses, the curtains that hung over the kitchen sink, a Sunday tablecloth, my grandfather’s work shirts, doll clothes, baby blankets… What others considered trash, she treasured as potential. There was always a big basket of remnant potential sitting next to her sewing machine just waiting to be used.
God was and still is a big fan of remnants. He often set aside a few to be used in ways that would greatly affect the masses. Noah and his small family followed God’s instructions to build an ark. “So, God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So, make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.” Genesis 6: 13-14. When the floods came, only Noah, his family and the creatures God had instructed Noah to save were tucked away for future use safely inside the ark. God saved the usable segments of earth’s population for a future purpose. Noah knew the purpose of his remnant. They were set aside to honor God and repopulate the Earth.
As believers, we are individual segments of God’s church. With numbers in the minority, we are considered a remnant. We also know our purpose; we must share the love and saving grace of Christ with inhabitants of our sinful world. Just like the stitches in a quilt, God’s saving grace binds his remnant tightly together. My grandmother often nicked her finger with the quilting needle. Her blood was stitched right into her quilts. The sacrificial blood of Christ runs through each stitch that binds His remnant firmly together. We are covered by the Blood of the Lamb!
