Yesterday I found myself hanging some laundry which included some textiles which I have been weaving on one of the looms at Creative Hands. Weaving on this loom has been particularly challenging because the yarns we used for the warp-those yarns that run vertically- are not the best and break off easily so the women were having issues trying to work with it. So, it has meant not weaving on it since April but when I came back at the end of June I was determined to go for it. And the yarn has taught me patience and perseverance because it has been breaking which has meant a lot of getting up, pull out the broken one, remove it so it does not interfere with the other threads, it has also meant sometimes starting all over again especially when there have been too many broken threads that the end result is going to be disfigured.
Back to hanging clothes and the textiles yesterday; I somehow felt the Lord speaking to me about how this picture, the yarns that I have had to work with, speak so well about our lives here at Creative Hands. But I thought more about the women I have worked with and the ones I am working with right now. They each come in their different colors and strengths and at first when I look at the them, they all look beautiful, unique and give the impression of lives that are together because when I make initial contacts I don’t know them, and neither do I know their individual journey and past. It is so amazing that it is only when there has been some sense of trust established that things begin to come out.
As I thought of the experience I have had on the loom I realized that God was showing me a picture of how tender and fragile these women are and how with tender care and grace, the same I exerted towards the yarns, He wants me to show to the women. It is amazing that after all the pain of seeing the threads constantly break and I have to fix them, the work once off the loom, washed, ironed and finished does not show the fight to get it to that place. It is the same with our women, when I look back at each of them depending on how long they have been with us, I am amazed at the work God does in each of them and each one teaches me something.
As I thought of the experience I have had on the loom I realized that God was showing me a picture of how tender and fragile these women are and how with tender care and grace, the same I exerted towards the yarns, He wants me to show to the women.
I think of Azam, our weaver from Iran who has gone through a lot and still experiences pain, frustration and sometimes I think she has moments of despair as she tries to raise two children in a foreign country where she does not understand or speak the language and has to try make life better. Sometimes her fragility shows in her work when on a particular day all she can produce is work that is a constant doing and undoing because she is distracted, her focus is somewhere not on her work and that is a challenge. I have learned to ‘read’ where she is at on that day by simply looking at her work. It has been a journey and I love how God constantly reminds me to love her and understand that just like the beautiful piece of textile we got after painstakingly working through the fragile yarns, one day Azam is going to stand and testify of God’s goodness and faithfulness in her life.
Then we have other women like Joy a single mother to a three year old son. Her story is different to Azam’s but unique to her because she has journeyed through stuff some of which I do not know, but what I know is that as I hung the textiles on my balcony yesterday, I was reminded of her. Her son is a constant reminder of his father who betrayed, lied and cheated on her and left her all alone. That speaks of great brokenness, pain and hurt but again we have watched her settle into our environment and begin to thrive. Joy joined us in February first to learn and then now she is working and has great potential and I am grateful.
These women among many others with their children have become family to me, we eat together, Sundays we go to church together and we hang out at the beach or wherever because together we are stronger. My dream and desire is that Azam, Joy, Rania, Afrodite and others will come to that place of knowing the Love of God in great measure and share with others. I know each day is a new day and we find mercy and grace to help us.
“Thus says the Lord: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by injustice, Who uses his neighbour’s service without wages and gives him nothing for his work, “Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He judged the cause of the poor and needy; Then it was well. Was not this knowing Me?” says the Lord.” Jeremiah 22:3, 13, 15-16 NKJV
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