When I first saw the hole in my aqua, thermal blanket, which had been on the bed of my great aunt, I was so dismayed. She left it to me when she went to be with our Lord, and I’ve tried to take good care of it, but somehow it must have snagged on something and there it was, a three inch gap in my favorite thermal blanket. I was putting it on our bed for the winter and knew it had to be patched or it surely would grow larger, because Lawrence and I fight over our blankets! But oh, don’t you know how much of a pain it is to have to patch something!

First you have to find something to patch it with, but luckily my mother recently helped me start making a flannel quilt, so I had some pieces of flannel (because I save all my scraps) and there it was; a piece of red flannel with green striping in it that, when placed against my blanket, looked surprisingly good. The green wasn’t an exact match, and the red stuck out like a sore thumb, but the softness of the flannel and plaid combination of colors made it an acceptable match.

Well, sewing a piece of flannel onto a thermal blanket was quite a challenge. The blanket has holes in it, and the threads are loose, and I may not even be calling it by the right name. It’s made with thick cotton threads weaved loosely and there are holes throughout, and the threads were actually broken, so it was like sewing something on to air, with only some threads to latch on to. I decided it needed an identical patch on the other side, so I cut two pieces of the same flannel patch. Fortunately I had enough for front and back. As I began to stitch, I thought of Jesus, and how much He must love us. It overwhelmed me how much love He had for us, to take so much precious time for us, to teach us by His examples and parables in His Word, and for each wound He received on our account. Each drop of precious blood that fell from His body was like a stitch in time. That needle poked me a couple times, and it was sharp. How much more pain did He bear from the thorns and whip?

Well, each stitch (for me) was quite a feat. I had to fold under by a quarter inch the edges of the patch, and the thermal blanket beneath the patch kept moving. It’s not a whole piece of material that I could pin together. The threads of the blanket kept shifting. Each stitch was difficult, but I was able to sew it on there, and while it was not perfect, it was good enough to piece the hole together until I could turn it over and sew the second patch on the backside. The backside patch had to be folded under and I had to try to match it up to the front patch. Again, it was not perfectly matched, but you know what? It looks rather good! It looks like someone loves it. Someone loved it enough to take time to stitch it up and save it, and now it can continue to warm us and possibly another family after us. We’re family number two. It will last as long as someone loves it, and will take time for it to patch it again, if necessary. Wow! Patches have a lot of meaning!

How much more could someone love us? How much more could God take care of us? He patches us with Jesus. With each stitch, He painstakingly takes our cares, our sins, our burdens and our torn up lives and stitches us up with beautiful crimson, golden threads, and when He’s done, in His eyes, we are beautiful. People may see the imperfections and say, “I see the edge of that side does not perfectly match the patch on the other side!” But our hearts are spiritually patched and we glow from within and without, and His glory shines through us, and His peace resides in us, and His joy radiates from us and we are saved! We have life everlasting! Hallelujah!

Thank you Lord, for patching us with Jesus! And thank you, also, for this comparison you showed me from the simple task of sewing. It also taught me that it pays to save the scraps! We never know when something (or someone) may need that precious, life saving, Patch! All praise and honor and glory are yours, both now and forever, Amen.