Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, October 5, 2025
I was mending the other night. I don’t mind mending; it’s usually a project small in time and effort that gives me the pleasure of putting something together again. Mending is somewhat akin to healing, I think.
You can mend all manner of objects – furniture, clothing, glassware, electronics, pottery, watches, stuffed animals, books, shoes, hearts. (Some mending is more challenging than others.) Helpful tools may include needle and thread, wire, patches, scissors, hammer and nails, all kinds of glue, soldering iron, all types of tape, words, hugs, love.
My recent mending required only needle and thread. As I worked, I thought how both my mother and my mother-in-law enjoyed mending. I like to remember how my mother would urge me before she came to visit us to “save any mending for me.” Both women grew up in times and circumstances that required a great deal of patience and resourcefulness for daily living.
This makes me muse as I mend. How often do I weigh the cost of repair with the cost of new? Is it all about cost/benefit ratio? What new skill might I learn, to be able to mend rather than throw away? Could I offer help with mending of some kind to others?
As I tied the last knot and snipped the thread and put away my scissors and spool, I thought how handy and humble thread is. And yes, it reminds me of Jesus!
Once upon a time I had a college Bible professor named Carl Coffman. Out of all the words he spoke during the quarter I sat in his classroom, this was my clearest take-away: He said he wished he could produce a paper that would have the light outline of the face of Jesus on it, and then print Bibles on that paper – reminding us on every page that the whole Bible story is about Jesus.
If we asked Professor Coffman what is the thread that runs throughout the entire Bible, I’m sure he would say, “Jesus.” You might answer, “our salvation story,” or “redemption,” or the scarlet thread of “love.” I think in all these answers we would be saying the same thing.
Sometimes a word just catches hold of my interest and imagination and I know I’m going to be thinking of it for awhile; that’s what’s happened to me now with “thread.”
It must be because my mending brought my dear mother and mother-in-law to mind that I suddenly thought of the phrase “picking up the threads.” Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary defines this idiom as “to begin something again after a long time.”
I last heard my mother’s voice in November of 1982, my mother-in-law’s in May of 1998. Forty-three and twenty-seven years ago. A long time ago. One of my favorite things to do with both of them was to sit and visit, to listen to them tell stories of their lives. How I look forward to “picking up the threads” with them again! There will be plenty of time, when time shall be no more, to talk once more. With great pleasure we’ll pick up the threads.
In that Place, because of God’s grace, all will be mended. Resurrection Day means all will be not merely repaired, but restored, made new – such a new as we have never known!
Let’s read the promise of healing one more time, because I never weary of hearing these words:
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” (Revelation 21:3-5 NKJV)
And all this makes me think of what the dictionary calls an “informal, old-fashioned” word: “threads.” “Threads” meaning “clothes,” as in, “How do you like my new threads?”
Listen to the Bible describe the best threads of all:
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. (Isaiah 61:10)
These threads, these garments, this robe of righteousness have not been patched and mended. We are clothed with the grace-filled gift of Jesus – His perfect righteousness for our old tattered rags.
I lay down my needle and thread, my tape and my glue, my tool kit, and with a full and grateful heart say, “Thank You, Jesus!”
This week, live loved. Because you are.