A Yarn About Red Yarn

Way back in the 1970's a skein of red yarn rested in a ten-cent store (remember them?) in downtown Richmond, Virginia. Waiting for some nice creative lady to buy it.

The nice lady came in, bought several skeins of yarn, all colors. Red was happy, because she knew she would soon make someone else happy with a new garment or afghan. Nice lady wound the skeins into balls, nice and loose because it was real wool, and used most of the red. But some was left--not enough to make even a sweater for a little kid--so Red was put into the box of unneeded yarn with others and being sorted through several times was soon tangled and seemingly unusable.

Years passed. Nice lady had lots of spare time--she crocheted, knitted, sewed, made dolls and needlepoint pillows and embroidered doilies. Yarn was sorted through, discarded, given away, and Red just sat there waiting to be made into something wonderful.

The nice lady, living with her sisters, died, and a granddaughter cleared out the house. It was a whole new century, and bags of yarn, thread, fabric, patterns were collected and given to a church. Another lady looked at the tablesful and sorted through everything. She did not throw anything away--she did her best to see that everything was available to any other nice ladies to use.

And still Red sat there, waiting. Too small to be a child's garment, too bright-colored to be a prayer shawl, Red felt unuseful.

Finally after years of neglect, Red was made by a new nice lady in a needlework circle into a crocheted blanket--maybe only large enough we thought for a doll bed. But Red was happy to be sent to a friend-child in far-away Ecuador who needed God's healing and help.

How many nice ladies does it take to make a small prayer shawl for a child? In this case, at least 6 or 7. And now a whole church knows that Abby needs prayers and healing.

And we will all think of and pray for Abby. All because of some nice ladies!