Throughout the process of designing (and now making...started sewing on the first one last night!) of the memorial quilts, we have come to the realization that these children inspire us to live our lives to the fullest. Emilie does not fall short in her inspiring life. In fact, every time I pull her bag of fabric from the box to add more to her design, we can not help but see her desire to share her talent with others in a special way. I am not sure if we captured the full extent of this in her quilt design, but we know what it means.
You see...Emilie liked to create art work. Maybe that does not seem strange for children of this age...art is a big part of most school classrooms. However, Emilie took this a little further than most...she LOVED to draw and create. So much so...that her family's home is supposedly like an art gallery with her art on all the walls.
The inspiration of Emilie's art is already a joy for us to view, but her inspiration does not stop there. You see, Emilie did not reserve her artwork for herself...she shared with others. Her family and friends reported that Emilie loved to create cards with her artwork. If someone was not felling well or sad, Emilie used her artwork to create a card to send them. On any occasion ..happy or sad...she created a card to bring more joy to that person.
This selflessness of Emilie reminds me of a Bible story...a parable Jesus used to teach a valuable life lesson to his disciples (that's US!). The parable of the talents...found in Matthew 25:14-30. The servants of a rich man were each given bags of gold (talents) to protect while he was away on a journey. While he was gone, all but one chose to protect the gold by investing the money in various ways. The last servant...fearing he would lose his gold...chose to bury the gold he was given. Upon the return of the rich man, each servant was called forward to present the gold they protected. Each servant brought forth more gold then they were given and the rich man was pleased...announcing to them: "Well done, good and faithful servant!"
Until the last servant came forward and announced he had buried his gold and only brought forth the original amount. The response of the rich man to this servant was scorn...taking the bag of gold and giving it to another servant. This servant was cast aside into a place of dread.
So where will we be when we stand before our Master? Do we share our talents or do we hide them away for our own? I am sure that Emilie...sweet 6-year-old....full of life and willing to share her gifts with others...stood before her Master and heard the words: "Well done, good and faithful servant!" May she inspire you as she has inspired us.
By the way, when I chose to write about Emilie, I had not read the Mass readings for the day. Just now as I was about to publish this post, I decided to see if there was any connection. Don't you just love it when things come together? The first reading for the day is from 1 John 4:7-10: "...everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God..." Read the full passage to see the rest of the story. We do have an awesome God! He brings hope in a world gone bad...Praise Him above all things today and share your talents He has bestowed on you in order to share His Love with others.
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