Expert Tailoring

With my mother now gone, the task of sewing has fallen to me, the last in our family line who can sew a hem.  Mom, who was barely 5 feet tall, was always sewing hems. Everything she bought was too short. But it wasn't just hems. She had a sewing machine and loved to use it. When I was a girl, she made me dresses. As a grandmother, she enjoyed making blankets and pillows and curtains for us. 

Her father, Eliseo Lucciola was a tailor by trade, as were his brothers. He had his own shop in Belleville, Lucciola Tailors, and the byline was: Expert Tailoring. Like many men of his era, he took great pride in his work. So sewing was in her blood. 

Princess Ella & Friends

It should have been in mine too, but I lack several things: the training, the experience and the patience it takes for a complicated job. When I was asked to hem Ella's Halloween costume, I knew I was over my head. It was a lovely pink princess costume, several sizes too big and the hem was about 7 inches too long. Worse, it had a flared double skirt. But it was only a Halloween costume so the fact that I mangled the hems didn't matter as much. It was short enough in the end. 

As I struggled with the hem, I could sense my grandfather turning over in his grave. It brought to my mind a time when I was 16 years old. My boyfriend Tony had a new suit he needed hemmed and so I insisted he allow my expert tailor grandfather do the job for him. 

When it was done and Tony took it home to try it on, he called me and said one leg hem was shorter than the other. No, it could not be, my grandfather insisted. Tony had to come to the house and put on the pants for him to see that indeed, one leg was shorter than the other.

This is the problem with thinking you are the expert. It is hard to confess when you are wrong. Being wrong is not what you expect. I must say, it was easier for me to confess to my daughter that I made a mess of the hems because I never expected it to be done well. I am no expert.

Confession is the pathway to our best self. When we are redirected, we can get on the right path to the place where we truly want to go. The person who finds our errors gives us a gift. Because then we can correct our work and make it better.  As long as we live we have another day to do a better job: at being a wife, a mother, a friend, co-worker. Even at sewing a hem. 

When we are the "expert" we feel we can't afford to be wrong, to make a mistake. This is a painful trap. 

There is only one perfect Man, one true Expert, and His name is Jesus. He stands ready to forgive each error when we turn to Him.

That's why He came.  

May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to His people, who live in the light. For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son Jesus, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins. (Colossians 1:11b-13)