Tuesday night I made a purse out of loose ends I found around the house. I cut the body out of the legs of black cotton jeans, discarded when I was 40 pounds heavier. The zipper I ripped out of a fanny pack on which “Gold Strike” was embroidered. I don’t know what that phrase means or where it came from, except the back of my closet.
I stiffened the sides with reinforced plastic left over from our old jewelry business sign. The ribbed nylon strap I repurposed from a fleece stadium blanket carrier. I don’t do football. But I do do creativity. I love making new functionality out of useless objects. The purse is just the right size for my wallet, phone, and voice recorder, and the strap is just the right length so the bag is tucked under my arm.
Isn’t that what our creative God does with previously useless pieces of our lives? Those third grade piano lessons? The daydream you had when you were sixteen about piloting an airplane? What about the idea in early adulthood to preach the gospel in the inner city?
Are they really loose ends that God won’t do anything with? Or will God yet use them in unexpected ways? Will he soon sew together previously useless objects into a container that will carry his glory into the world?
Father, you are the master Creator. Help us believe that you will yet mold the useless parts of our lives into patterns that you will fill with your glory.