I have found the history of quilling, also known as paper rolling, filigree, mosaic and paper scrolling, to be quite interesting. Some historians believe that it dates all the way back to Ancient Egypt. It has been documented that French and Italian monks and nuns were practicing the art back in the 16th and 17th century. It is likely that they took the gilded paper strips from gold edged Bible pages to imitate the earlier forms of wire rolling to beautifully decorate book covers and other items. Other historians believe that the Bible was held so sacred and precious that these papers were not used but other scrap pieces they had lying around. The term “quilling” probably comes from the goose quills that they used to roll the paper. Some believe that American colonists probably used porcupine quills. Nevertheless, the craft caught on and many intricate and ornate works of beauty were created.

This became a craft for the “ladies of leisure” never for the working class women. Women of “good breeding” did not do the hard, physical work around the home. These ladies of course must not exert much energy at all in their day to day activities! Someone said that they chose quilling as a hobby because it would not tax their minds. So ladies, you can relax tonight and feel like a lady of leisure just don’t try to work your mind too much!! Quilling faded from popularity in the late 1800’s and wasn’t revived until later. Today many quilling enthusiasts enjoy this beautiful craft as well as the recipients of their handmade treasure.

I believe that we can easily relate quilling to what God does in our lives. We all have scraps in our lives that we would like to throw away. We look at our problems, failures, mistakes, disappointments and frustrations and think that there is no way that they could be of used for good in our lives. But God has an amazing way of taking those very things that you would like to just discard forever and use them to create something very beautiful in your life. However, we must allow Him to bend us a little, maybe stretch us a little, twist us here and there and even break us sometimes before He can create His masterpiece. So many of us try to fight against what He is trying to do in our lives. We try to stand strong and remain resilient not allowing Him to work in our lives.

There’s this story that reminds me of how someone turned a mistake into something very useful. In fact you probably use this item quite often. There was a man named Arthur Fry who was frustrated with his bookmarks constantly falling out of his hymnal in church while he was singing. Arthur was an employee of a glue company and remembered a mistake that one of the workers had made. A scientist, Spencer Silver, could not produce a very strong glue no matter what he tried. His glue was weak and things just wouldn’t stick together. I’m sure he was frustrated and felt like a complete failure. He probably wasn’t too sure about the security of his job at this point either. However, Mr. Fry got the idea to take the weak glue and put it on his bookmarks. The glue would be just enough to adhere the bookmarks to the pages but could easily be removed without causing any damage to the pages. Have you figured out what product this eventually became? You guessed it. It’s our Post-it notes – something that I use almost every day in my work. So there you have it. Someone’s mistake became something very useful and very helpful. And, I’m sure has made someone very wealthy!!

God tells us in His word in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for the good of those who love God. In Ecclesiastes He says that He has made everything beautiful in its time. Take a look at the life of Joseph. His life is chock full of disappointments – everything from being sold into slavery by his brothers to being wrongly accused of adultery and being thrown into a nasty prison to be all but forgotten. However, God used him to become the second highest leader in Egypt and save his family and a nation from a devastating famine. Joseph even said that what others meant for evil God meant for good.

So, today as you take these pieces of papers that don’t look like much, think about all those things in your life that you would rather just throw away, ask God to help you to find the good in all of them. Maybe you’ve learned a lesson through a painful situation. Maybe you’ve learned to be patient or have sympathy for others who are suffering. Or possibly God is using these situations to correct you, to teach you humility or forgiveness. Whatever the situation allow God to stretch you a little, bend you, or maybe He’ll even have to break you to create in you a beautiful work of art for all the world to see!!!