A Stitch in Time – sounds like a column
about sewing, huh? Well, it isn’t!
A Stitch in Time is going to be about seeing a need or a
problem, a “loose stitch” in the fabric of a life, your own or
someone else’s, and doing what it takes to help stop and fix it
– before it gets to the point of embarrassment, pain, anguish or
total destruction.
She pops into our little church at Mt. Hall when she gets a
chance … not a member, just a neighbor whose husband couldn’t
find work here, so he is working in another state right now,
while she lives here alone. She needed some firewood split,
hauled and stacked, so the men of the church and I decided to go
over after Men’s Prayer Breakfast one Saturday and do a couple
of truck loads for her.
It was cold and I was wearing my insulated coveralls. As I did a
low squat to grab the first armload of wood to stack on the
truck, I felt a strange sensation. As I continued working I
noticed a slight chill where there just shouldn’t aughta be one!
Wasn’t long before one of the guys splittin’ and throwin’ the
wood made a comment about my drafty condition …Well, when I took
off my glove and felt behind me, clear to my jeans, I realized
there was a very long gap letting in a lot of cold air.
At this juncture, and with all the guys snickering, one dear
fellow piped up with, “Ya know … a stitch in time saves nine
--INCHES!”
Very funny, but the more I thought about what he had said, the
more sense it made!
A stitch, in time!
The first purposeful disobedience to parents, or the law; that
first drink or joint, those first pictures that should never
have been looked at, the first set of lies (since they never
come in ones) … What if?
What if there had been a “Stitch in Time?” If it stopped it
right then and there, before the unraveling of a life?
Someone told me our brain is like a huge computer, but it has no
firewall – no protection against what we hear or see. I guess
that means that we are responsible for what goes in!
I don’t know about you, but when I sit back and close my eyes to
relax, or I go to bed at night, there’s just nothing like a
clear conscience, a clean slate.
“Ah, but,” you say. “It’s too late.”
Well, it may be too late to catch that first loose stitch, but
there is a God of second chances.
He can stitch you back up and help you start over again.
So, keep your eye open for a loose stitch – either your own or
someone else’s … maybe you can save a life, if you take that
Stitch in Time! |
