I’m going to tell you a seemingly inconsequential story about some peach thread.
Last Christmas, the staff at Mercy House Global had a white elephant gift exchange. As they have been partnering with Syrian refugees local to Houston, to create fair trade product, the family was invited, too.
Everyone had a good laugh when Muna, the oldest daughter, pulled some peach thread out of her gift bag. Apparently this bit of thread had been passed around the barn since the Spring of 2018. No one really wanted it, and there was no obvious use for it.
But this industrious young woman, who is one of the candlemakers, took it home.
Could it be that when everything has been stripped from us and we have little to show for ourselves, that it is then that we can find use and purpose in the most insignificant things?
The next week, during a visit, Muna showed them this piece of art that she had crafted.
Nails hammered into a piece of wood formed the shape of a heart. She then looped the thread around the nails into such an intricate design, that I cannot quite wrap my head around how she did it.
The Mercy House staff immediately asked if she could make more. It is now a featured product in the Valentine’s Day collection on the Mercy House Global Online Marketplace.
There is something powerfully symbolic here. Nails in wood reveal the heart of God.
Without salvation would it not be us wandering through life aimlessly devoid of purpose?
Without the nails that drove through Jesus’ flesh, holding Him to a wooden cross, would it not be us poised to be cast away forever?
It is through this holy and merciful process of redemption that we are privileged to be woven into the greatest love story ever told.
The believer should have a love for repurposed unwanted things because this is our story.
This Valentine’s Day, choose to show love through honouring the redemptive love of Christ.
By purchasing tokens of affection from fair trade sources, you are not only showing love for the gift recipient. You are showing women who are unwanted in their culture, and oppressed by poverty, misogyny and exploitation that they are not forgotten; they are valuable and worthy of love.
Mercy House Global is generously offering a 15% discount on the items in their Valentine’s Day collection with the use of the promo code: LOVEOTHERS.
Head on over there today. And remember, you are the one whom Jesus loves.
