October's reflection from the Moderator

My Mum was a very creative woman - she was always learning new crafts. Usually there were several projects on the go at the one time, and plenty more ideas in her head for the future. As the years began to take their toll she moved on to simpler things. For a time that was crocheting beautiful multi-coloured blankets, using up all the odds and ends of wool from previous projects. I've a couple of these blankets in the house. Ideal for keeping warm on cold winter days and lovely reminders of my Mum.

I've always been inspired by Kaffe Fasset, a knitwear designer, or perhaps more accurately knitwear artist. I could pore over his pattern books for hours…He uses short lengths of multi-coloured, multi-textured wool and creates the most beautiful jumpers and cardigans – each one a blend of vibrant, bright colours, and darker background colours, each one unique, each one a masterpiece. And yet the constituent ingredients are nothing special, just bits and pieces, in fact really just scraps, but he transforms them into something very special indeed.

Over the years he has diversified – his creations now include patchwork and mosaic. Same principle – lots of little bits and pieces of material or tile, leftovers, scraps, put together to make something useful, something beautiful, something very special indeed.

It reminds me of the church. Jesus calls a real mixed bag of folk to ‘come, follow me.' We come - all with different skills, different backgrounds, different experiences – and Jesus builds us up and binds us together. We all bring our little bits of faith and commitment, of time and talent, of worship and prayer, our passions and possessions, and with them Jesus can do amazing things.

So often we say, ‘But what can I do? What difference can I make?' Just remember a patchwork quilt or a crochet blanket - leftovers, scraps, put together to make something useful, something beautiful, something very special indeed.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:27)