The Mystery of Buttons

(Text Version)

I remember as a child climbing the huge staircase at my great grandparent’s home and finding my way into her sewing room.  It was so tiny, like a small walk-in closet today.  Nana had organized drawers of nifty things.  My favorite drawer was her button drawer.  I loved to run my fingers through them and touch them.

Now that I am a Grammy and recently organized my sewing drawers, I suddenly had a thought of what those buttons meant to my Great Grandma.  It takes years and years and years to collect that many buttons that come off old discarded garments and new sewing projects.  It is usually not until one becomes a Grammy that one receives the promotion of so many buttons!

Buttons are like an anchor, something to hold onto.  But what?  Somehow the “power” of a button closes the hole between two pieces of cloth.  This is a mystery.  Does the hole in the garment grab onto the button?  Does the button grab onto the nothingness in the hole?  How do the two connect?

HOW TO MAKE A BUTTON HOLE:

A seamstress makes a button hole by sewing a short skinny rectangle the length of the button and then cuts a slit inside the rectangle.  The round button is sewn on the opposite side matching the rectangle slit.  This is the mystery of the round button in a square hole.  It is the differences between the two shapes that allows them to connect and hold together.

Sometimes I have been in difficult places where I have felt like a round peg in a square hole. I say, “Lord, I don’t fit here!  I am different!”

If you feel like you are a round peg stuck in a square hole, remember that God has a purpose for you right where you are.  He created you unique for a purpose.  You are helping connect broken places that don’t fit.  Your differences are exactly what that broken place needs to connect and work correctly.

Ezekiel 22:30 I sought for a person just like you who would help close the broken gaps in places so that they wont be totally destroyed.