Humanity can make you lose heart these days, which is why I treasure a 3” x 2.5” swatch of pink fabric given to me by a man I’ve never seen.

When my decades-old sewing machine broke down, replacing it was low priority because I really only used it for mending or making mittens. The reason I can even make mittens is because my cousin taught me. She’s one of the people my pink swatch now represents.

Several years ago, my husband and our middle daughter tried to fix my sewing machine, earning pink swatch status, even though the swatch did not exist at the time. My husband planned to surprise me with a new machine for Christmas, but knowing surprises usually backfire with me, he enlisted the help of a coworker who advised what kind to get and where. That purchase didn’t work out, but the coworker became part of my pink swatch saga, along with the company that accepted the return.

Not long after, I found a sturdy old machine at a thrift store. We usually don’t buy used electrical items, but it seemed a propitious purchase for $20. The coworker agreed, threading it and recommending someone in the next town who could give it a good oiling and going over for a reasonable $50.  We were still far ahead of the price of the new machine we’d returned, so it seemed a reasonable investment. 

On his way to pick up our oldest daughter from the airport, my husband dropped off the machine for servicing. He figured we’d pick it up when we came through to return her to college. That failed to happen, and when my husband tried again, he was told that our machine didn’t work. I started getting irritated, even though the man said he wouldn’t charge us the $50 for trying to service a broken machine.

At this time, COVID-19 was making daily headlines. Although it required an extra 60-mile round trip to pick up our useless machine, we combined it with a shopping excursion and brought along a few of our organically raised onions to repay the man in part. I waited in the car because we were practicing social distancing by then. This time, my husband was not welcomed into the man’s house but returned from the garage with the machine and a pink swatch with stitch samples demonstrating that it now worked. During the extra elapsed time, the man had been inspired to do some tinkering. He accepted his $50 and the onions.

I was happy but busy under lockdown and didn’t touch the machine until I needed to fix a mattress pad. Soon I discovered something was missing and my machine didn’t work at all.

I hurled the swatch across the room and decided to cut our losses, but my husband called the man and drove another 60 miles to his house and back, since one of the missing parts had to be installed. The man offered to refund us $10 for driving expenses.

I started sewing the mattress pad by hand and didn’t try the machine my husband brought home until my fingers ached. It did work! The old commercial-grade workhorse was so well made, it could take on the bulkiest seam with no problem. I had myself a machine that could sew thick woolen mittens and anything else I threw at it! I finished in minutes what would’ve taken me days. Recalling my tantrum, I tucked the pink swatch in my Bible.

My swatch is the perfect size for covering lines and columns as I memorize verses. That cheery patch of pink reminds me that even strangers can still be trusted sometimes, like the lady who supplies us with homegrown chickens and gave us masks for our whole family without laughing at the pitiful ones I made with my wonderful sewing machine. The swatch brings to mind the neighbors who drove by and left eggs in our mailbox, not even knowing that we had just run low. It helps me remember these pink people and others, as unprecedented crime and challenges rock our nation.

John 10:10 says that while the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, Jesus came to grant abundant life. Long ago I learned that God is good, but I finger the fabric every day to remind myself that even now, people can sometimes be, too.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org