A Thread of Hope

All of us dread public embarrassment. To have one’s faults or indiscretions announced in public brings chin dropping shame. Imagine the woman caught in the act of adultery (something she would want to keep hidden) dragged and thrown in the dirt before Jesus and you get the picture.

How can anyone recover from such humiliation?

At such moments when all is lost grace appears–a thread of hope. Not a many stranded cable that brings assurance. Just a thread.

Ironic isn’t it that thread is the metaphor? What can a thread do? It cannot lift much, but think again. It can hold things together and create beauty. Stitched into a fabric it can endure for millennia. A silk thread is the strongest natural fiber on earth that can form cloth that’s soft against skin we cover in modesty. Its brightly colored sheen adorns royal robes. A tailor or seamstress knows its value, and they use it prudently to create the clothing we need now that we wander exposed outside the gates of paradise.

When your life comes undone like a torn cloak, remember it can be stitched back together with nothing more than a thread.