In Relief Society today the teacher started the lesson by asking us to recount an experience where we worked really hard at something and how we felt through the process and when we finished.
I shared my experience with making a baby quilt for my nephew that I've never met. You see, every year for Christmas, we draw names so that if we're too poor to buy presents for every family member, we'll at least be getting one for one of them. The year that I made the quilt, I drew my oldest brother and his wife. The marrieds are always kind of hard to buy for, so 18 year old me did a total cop out and decided to do something for my nephew that was on the way instead.
Some crazy part of my brain decided that I wanted to make a baby quilt. Understand that I was (and am) terrible at sewing. The only things that I had ever sewn all by myself were super simple for my FACS classes. But my mom used to always make quilts for new babies and my sister had made a couple as well and she seemed to really enjoy it.
So I looked through the piles of fabric in Mom's sewing room and picked out a simple pattern. My mom told me every single thing to do but I did it all by myself. I cut the fabric, sewed the pieces together, tied it, everything. Well... everything but the stupid binding that I tried to put on about 12 times and just couldn't get. I finally conceded and let Mom do it instead.
But that's not the point.
I had done the whole rest of it!... As my mom told me each and every step... But still!
Man oh man you should have seen my face when it was finished. I was giddy. Like, completely over-the-moon ecstatic. I was quite thoroughly ridiculous.
The quilt sat on the table for a few days waiting to be packaged up and sent to Texas. While it sat there, every time I saw it my face would light up. I would be eating a meal at the other table and would just gaze at my charming little quilt with pride.
I mean look at it! Is that not the most incredible thing that you have ever seen in your life?!?!?! I MADE that! It was magnificent. It clearly belonged in the Guggenheim, or the Louvre, or somewhere!
I had sewn the best quilt that had ever been created.
Obviously not really, but that's sure how it felt! It was the coolest creation in the world because I had made it! I had worked hard on that thing! I made a quilt during one of the most difficult times of my life (see previous blog post). I made it even though I don't know how to quilt and can hardly sew in a straight line. I finished it even though I got frustrated at it (and myself) and even though it was hard for me to do.
And that's what made it so incredibly special to me. I felt so freaking accomplished for making that one little baby quilt. I loved that thing and was so sad to finally package it up and send it away.
Back to Relief Society.
As I shared this story, I thought about how proud I was of that quilt and how much I loved it. And then I had this thought:
If I felt that much joy, and love, and pride over an inanimate object, then how much more joy, and love, and pride does Heavenly Father feel when He looks down on us?
I just picture Him looking down on one of His children and remembering placing each and every freckle on their face. I think of how my own freckles are only really visible during the summer but how I'm sure that Heavenly Father knows where each and everyone is even during the winter.
Can you imagine carefully putting together cells and veins and eyelashes and little toes and fingers and then placing a real live spirit into it? Can you imagine the look on His face when He looks at you?
You are a masterpiece that took intricate, skilled craftsmanship. And even though yours isn't the first living soul that He created, He loves you just as much as He loves His first. He gazes down at you with just as much pride and joy.
Each and every one of us is a masterpiece.
My sister-in-law told me the other day that my sweet nephew sleeps with the quilt that I made him every night, even four years later. That made me so ridiculously happy.
I hope that someday when I finally get to meet him, I will see that beautiful quilt totally worn out from use. Because that means that the thing that I created was loved and used for a very long time. And even when the bright colors have faded and there are stains and frays, I will love that quilt because I made it.
Heavenly Father feels for us what I feel for that quilt, but times about a bajilllion (that's an exact measurement by the way ;))
He will look down at us with a heart bursting with love even when we've dragged ourselves through the dirt a few times and have worn ourselves down. He loves us with our bumps and bruises and scars.
At devotional this past Tuesday, the speaker (Kirk Rawlins) said:
Nothing is more important to Him than you. Isn't that wonderful?
It's so incredible to me to look up at the stars- or at the intricacies of the anatomy of a flower -and to think that all that has ever been created exists for US. Each plant, animal, natural phenomenon-literally everything -was created for us to use, learn from, or enjoy. All that was ever created pales in comparison to the creation of YOU.
I don't know about you, but I think that that is pretty dang neat.
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