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The Lesson in the Pressing
For several years now at Christmas my sister and I work together to make a gift we give to our friends. It has become a sister-tradition. Sometimes we make something crafty with paper, sometimes we sew something. For the past two years, we did a sewing project. My sister, Jeaneen is a good seamstress. It runs in our family! Up to a few generations back we can find tailors in our line. We had a dear great aunt, Aunt Mary Lou, who loved to sew and who often made clothing for family members. Aunt Mary Lou had a whole room in her moderate-sized home devoted to sewing, complete with a life-sized model and bolts of cloth everywhere.
I enjoy working on the Christmas projects with Jeaneen. We always learn something each year, especially me since I’m the novice.
This past year, I remember her saying, “I think pressing hides a multitude of sins.” That’s because we were doing a small project, a sachet to be exact, and I was supposed to be ironing the seams open after she sewed. No easy task on a little 4x5 piece that has just been sewn. I was trying to find a way to avoid this step, questioning its necessity, particularly since we would be turning it inside out anyway. Besides, the steam was burning my fingers.
That’s when she said it, instantly deflating any of my well-considered arguments. “I think pressing hides a multitude of sins.” It’s a small tedious step in sewing. It’s time consuming. In this case with such a small item, it was nearly impossible to iron without the steam burning fingers or thumbs.
Yet, it has value in sewing. It neatens up the edges. It makes it easier to match up edges and sew pieces together. Pressing takes an item from looking nice to looking “Wow.” It’s not just a one-time activity on a sewing project. You need to press multiple times throughout and often at the end too. As a matter of fact, when we get to certain places on our sewing projects, we go into the project room and just plug in the iron, leaving it on until we exit the room.
It taught me something more. In my own life, I have the need to repent and seek forgiveness from our Lord and Savior regularly, at every step along the way. In sewing, pressing might be necessary for the project neatness. In life, the Blood of Jesus is necessary, for it cleanses us from all sin… (1 John 1:7).
“But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin,” 1 John 1:7 (NIV).
“That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish,” Ephesians 5:27 (KJV)
Copyright © 2008-2015 Diane Wiater, Ph.D.
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