We were traveling to an ASI Rally in St. Louis and making a stop near Kansas City. Our fellow ASI Officer, Vivian, invited us to spend the night at her lovely house and we graciously accepted. She works from home as a nurse and cares for her elderly mother.
As she was showing us her office in her basement, I saw a box on the floor next to her desk. It was a sewing machine. I asked Vivian if she sewed and she looked at me bewildered exclaiming, “Me, oh no.” She explained that she had found this box in a dumpster when she went on her daily walk. It looked brand new as if no one had ever used it. “Why would anyone throw away a new machine like this,” I asked. She told me if I could use it that she would give it to me. I mentioned that my mother was an expert seamstress and that I had learned some techniques from her. I knew that having a sewing machine would be an asset even if it only meant sewing up a seam once in a while. So we put it in the trunk and were on our way.
When we arrived home from the rally and were unloading our things, the sewing machine got placed under the basement stairs. It stayed there for months. I felt guilty for not using it as that was the condition which Vivian had given it to me. My friend from church, Pauline, kept inviting me to join her in the Agape Blanket project she directed. Over 50 fleece blankets had been cut, tied, and given to the County Sheriff’s Department for those in emergency situations. She had, however, kept all the scrap remnant squares which had been cut out of the corners of each blanket. She knew they could be used for something. These squares, sewn together, were the creation of a new project of lap blankets (each with 144 squares) for a nearby nursing home.
Since I had been laid off and had extra time on my hands, I decided to pull the sewing machine out from under the stairs and see if I could figure out how to work it. When I took it out of the box, I noticed that the instruction manual was missing. I set up a sewing area and plugged in the machine. I then searched YouTube for a video on the brand and type of the machine. It was informative as it showed me how to fill a bobbin and thread the machine. I followed the instructions and thought I was all set. However, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the machine to work. I pressed on the foot pedal and nothing happened.
I decided that I might need some expert advice and took it to a nearby sewing center. The lady at the counter took my machine and plugged it in. She threaded it and pressed on the foot pedal. It started right up. I thought, “Okay, it works. What am I doing wrong?” She suggested that I buy some better thread and go home and try it once more.
Here I was again threading the machine and hoping to make it work properly. The thread continued getting tangled under the fabric, so I kept watching the video and rethreading it. Over and over again, I tried. I prayed for days and told the Lord that He was going to have to “heal” this machine if He wanted me to do this project for Him!
That morning when I had rethreaded the machine for the umpteenth time, it worked! I got down on my knees and praised God for hearing and answering my prayer. Now the Lord’s project could be completed.
I learned several lessons from this sewing machine. One is that there are many free gifts that the Lord gives to all of us, and He wants us to use them.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).
He gives us His Word, His Son, prayer, singing, spiritual gifts, the Sabbath, the health message, the Spirit of Prophecy, dress counsel, outreach, etc. Many of these have been discarded by others. However, when we receive information from a friend on one of these topics, what do we do with it? We too put it away on the shelf untouched. Even if we are already a Christian and a Seventh Day Adventist, we ignore new light and discard it without even a glance. Eventually, when we run across it again, we try it but inwardly believe that it won’t work for us.
Then we are convicted that maybe if we watch a sermon or two on the subject that the instruction there will help us proceed with some understanding. We become so entangled in the advice given that we forget that God did not leave us without an instruction manual. So we journey in a different direction by reading the Bible, discussing it with family/friends, and again trying to thread these new concepts into our lifestyle and thinking. These new ideas are strange to us. Our culture and society chides us for even considering them.
Ellen White states in Acts of the Apostles, p. 259.1 concerning the church at Thessalonica: “They believed and cherished the letter sent to them by their father in the gospel, and their hearts went out in love to him. He had told them these things before; but at that time their minds were striving to grasp doctrines that seemed new and strange, and it is not surprising that the force of some points had not been vividly impressed on their minds.”
But frustration prevails! We use prayer as a last resort and go to God pleading with Him to help us. How quickly we learn that prayer has power.
“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26 ).
Again Sister White writes, “Those who seek God in secret telling the Lord their needs and pleading for help will not plead in vain. Thy Father which seeth in secret Himself shall reward thee openly. As we make Christ our daily companion, we shall feel that the powers of an unseen world are all around us; and by looking unto Jesus we shall become assimilated to His image. By beholding we become changed. The character is softened, refined, and ennobled for the heavenly kingdom. The sure result of our intercourse and fellowship with our Lord will be to increase piety, purity, and fervor. There will be growing intelligence in prayer. We are receiving a divine education, and this is illustrated in a life of diligence and zeal” (Power of Prayer, p. 41).
Did I really believe God would heal my sewing machine? I praise Him that He did! God will answer our prayers. He wants us to use the gifts He has freely given us. Even the scraps of our gifts can be given to Him, and He will tailor them into things of beauty for others. Don’t hide or discard them as I did with this sewing machine. When we use His free gifts, He stitches in us a life of diligence and zeal and we become useful for His Kingdom’s work. We, as remnant people should all desire that!
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Karen M. Phillips is happily married to her husband, John, and enjoys spending time with her children and grandchildren. She is a Human Resources Manager, an ASI Mid-America Officer, and a Bible teacher. Together they support their world-wide ministry – HeReturns. She writes from Omaha, Nebraska, USA.