Handmade Dolls

Psalm 139:14 – I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. (NRSV)

I have been given odds and ends of colourful yarn to knit special dolls. My senior hands don't hold the needles as they should or make the rows as neatly as they could be. Nevertheless, I enjoy creating dolls — lots of them — one by one. Not one looks the same as another, or is of same colour, or carries the same character.

I realize that there are flaws in all of them — one wrong stitch in a row makes an imperfect outcome. My dimming eyesight makes it difficult to match the rows evenly. But I picture the dolls as individuals created for a hug, and I shower them with love and imagine them with feelings — each one with scars and hurts, but responding with laughter and hope under any circumstances.

I pray over the hundreds of dolls. I pray that these little ones will each find a soulmate. I pray that they will tug a heartstring with tenderness for a faraway child. I pray that even the flaws will work in harmony for hope and pleasure in the love of God.

As each doll leaves my home, I send it out on a mission to embrace a hurting little one, as an ambassador of something powerful, wonderful, and lovely: to love, to care, to enjoy the special togetherness a little doll conveys, to be cuddled by a hurting child, to hope together for a better tomorrow. I send it out with a heart to touch a little one somewhere out in the hurting and forgotten world, someone more needy of love and care and hope, sharing inner secrets and tears known only to Jesus.

All of this causes me to imagine how God, with loving hands, enjoys wonderfully forming each one of us to be different in His creation, according to His love and purpose.

Just as I pray over my dolls, so the Holy Spirit and Jesus pray for each of us:

Romans 8:26-27 – Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (NRSV)

Hebrews 7:25 – [Jesus] is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (NRSV)

Unlike my dolls, we are formed by the Creator and mighty God who knows no error and makes no mistakes, though we may question His wisdom sometimes. God has such love for His creation, where everyone is special in His sight. The real flaws in our lives come about because of our sinfulness. God has sent us to this earth for a season — and a reason: we have the opportunity to return to Him in the image of Jesus Christ:

Romans 8:29 – For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. (NRSV)

The end of the story is that in Christ Jesus we become flawless, and in His righteousness we are made righteous. Our identity in God's eyes is secure in Christ our Saviour and Lord!

Like my dolls, God has a purpose for each of us in His universe. The Creator has gifted us to serve Him in unique ways. May we truly be His ambassadors to bring forth hope and love in a hurting world.

Prayer: Dear Father, thank You that everything You do is flooded with love, even when it involves suffering on our part. May we all be faithful and true in bringing some hope around us, giving You the glory in all we do. Amen.