A Prayer for Warmth

It is hard to explain to a child that some people are chronically homeless without facing the hardest questions in life. Why do we heat empty church buildings at night while people freeze under bridges?  Why are products produced by slave-labor available for purchase in our "free" country?  When is war ok?

These questions are too big for me, but I know one thing I was made to do...make things with my hands. 

So, we made a quilt. Actually, a wool blanket with a fabric pattern appliquéd to the top, but it is warm, sturdy, lightweight and made with love and prayer. 

Since I am a homeschooler raising homeschoolers, we made it a school project.  Laine made a pattern from his pattern blocks and I translated it into a fabric pattern. Incidentally, this was more geometry heavy than I anticipated. Pythagoras had to be consulted along with a journey into sine, cosine and tangent land.  Then Laine helped me select fabric, cut out the pieces and sew the pattern together. Next, I appliquéd the pattern to some yardage of wool coating fabric. I think it is quite lovely. 

Will our blanket solve homelessness?  Nope. In fact, it seems almost like an admission of helplessness to equip people to be homeless, but it is a gift--an act of humanity toward the dehumanized.  A reckless act of hope pieced riotously together in joy by this fidgety, toothless, lovely boy.