Meshing together

“Live in harmony with one another.”

^“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” *

 

With the onset of winter and noticeably chillier weather, all of our summer clothes have been put away and replaced by jackets, long-sleeved shirts and sweatshirts. The Michigan motto is to always ‘layer up’ just in case the weather changes.

I had to come to a decision about several things that were in need of repair.  Either get rid of them and buy new ones, or try to fix them. Not one, but four zippers had broken last winter—on a nice reversible vest, a reversible sweatshirt, an old ski jacket and a heavy-duty weatherproof rain parka that Al and I bought for a trip to Alaska thirty years ago.

As each zipper broke, I tried various tricks to fix it. When possible, a cut was made just above the place where the teeth had broken, putting the zipper puller back on track so that both sides would close, then sewing the two sides below the cut together, so that the zipper puller wouldn’t slide off the track when it reached the cut. This was just a temporary remedy though.

It was disappointing when the zipper on my warm ski jacket broke. Mom had given the jacket to me years ago, a bargain from a yard sale. I sewed the two sides of the zipper together by hand about halfway up from the bottom, so that the jacket had to be put on over my head, however that was not very practical. The hand stitching was taken out and some big safety pins were used instead; but cold air came through easily.

 All four of these garments had seen a lot of wear and tear. Were they worth the time and effort to fix? They were great for wearing outside to walk the dogs especially in inclement weather but not nice enough to wear out in public.

Well, I finally decided to put my high-tech sewing machine to work and give it a try. Not that I had ever put a zipper in a reversible sweatshirt or replaced a heavy duty one on a ski jacket. But it couldn’t be much more complicated than putting a zipper in a dress or skirt, could it? 

First, I ordered specialized jacket zippers of the required length online. Fifty dollars for the four zippers seemed outrageously expensive, but they could not be returned.

After they arrived in the mail, the real work began, with the ski jacket as my first project.  Taking out the old zipper was harder than I had anticipated.  Several evenings were spent ripping out rows of tiny stitching with an exacto knife while watching TV. It took extra caution in order not to slice the fabric or cut my finger.

The next step was to baste in the new zipper by hand, pushing a large needle through the heavy material with a thimble. I wondered if my sewing machine would even be able to handle the thick fabric, insulated with polyester.

When it was time for the actual sewing, for some reason my new machine just wouldn’t start. An “E 1” sign kept flashing on the screen. It took some time looking through the manual to discover that “E 1” meant “error, put down the presser foot!” Woops! It had been raised to the highest point so that the thick jacket would slide under the needle.

After lowering the presser foot, I stepped on the starter pedal and carefully guided the needle along the zipper. It was the type of zipper that had to be separated at the bottom; so first one side was stitched and then the other.

 Would the two sides mesh together when finished? What a great relief it was when I put on the jacket, connected the two sides and pulled the zipper to all the way to the top without any problem.

Just as the success in getting a zipper to work depends on its teeth meshing together perfectly, so the success in growing the kingdom of God depends on Christians living and working in harmony with one another as well as with those in the world around us. It takes dialogue, prayer and unconditional love—love that covers offenses, love that never gives up.

 “Dear friends, let us love one another…” (1 John 4:7a NIV)

*Romans 12:16 & Romans 14:19 NIV