Lenten Devotional by Marilyn Alabran
March 27, 2017
A Gathering of Women (2010)
Several years ago, a group of women from Edwards Church gathered in Fellowship Hall and we made colored clay beads to send to Boston Children’s Hospital. The beads were for children who had cancer. Each color stood for something the child had gone through. The children would add beads to their necklace called “beads of courage.” We worked for many weeks and made over 6,000 beads. The beads were then given to Debbie one Sunday where they were blessed by Debbie and the congregation. The next day they were mailed to the hospital.
An Untold Story (2013)
In 2013 I made a phone call to Scargo Pottery on the Cape, asking them if they wanted to buy my potters wheel that their father had made for me forty years ago. They did but couldn’t come up to get it, so they would send a friend to pick it up.
The young man came and loaded the wheel into his truck. As we were talking, he told me that he was on the way to Children’s Hospital to pick up his six-year-old son. He proudly said that his son would be speaking at church that Sunday about his “beads of courage” necklace. He would share how the necklace helped him get through his painful journey.
As I stood there listening to the story, I thought how amazing it was for a stranger to be bringing me the news that our beads did make a difference. I told the man that our church had made the beads and had sent them to Children’s Hospital.
(1) In 2010 the Edwards Fellowship Hall was a safe sanctuary for many women of different ages and backgrounds to come together to learn and create.
(2) In 2013 a surprising story of courage came home from a young boy. The word courage comes in all colors, sizes, and meaning.
Beads of courage are colorful beads that symbolize the courage that these children go through.
(3) The English word “bead” means prayer.
Hymn – “Take My Gifts”
Take whatever gifts I can offer, gifts that I have yet to find,
Skills that I am slow to sharpen, talents of the hand and mind
Things made beautiful for others in the place where I must be.
Take my gifts and let me love you God, who first of all loved me.
Lyrics by Shirley Erena Murray; Tune by Aubrey Lee Butler