Prayer Blankets for Babies
A few days before Christmas last year my husband and I joined members of our church to distribute groceries to the families of farmworkers in a rural community near where we live. Though this is a weekly ministry, on this day, we also held a Christmas party for some 300 people. (Typically, we serve 300-500 people every Friday!) Some of our ladies had made over 400 sandwiches and baked just as many little gift cakes. There were teddy bears and candycanes for the children and a volunteer Santa from our church to give them them out.
For months, women in our church community had been working on crocheted or knitted afghans. The expressions of joy and gratitude from the families as they received them warmed my heart. Each was a tangible gift of love that said more than words ever could.
The seed of an idea began to form as I watched. I thought about the prayer shawls I'd received, and others I'd made for friends. To know that someone whispered a prayer for me with each stitch was (and still is) a blessing beyond measure. And in some ways it's an even greater blessing to make a prayer shawl for a special friend, praying for her as I crochet.
Then I noticed the babies, some just infants in their mothers' arms, others toddlers in strollers. The day was cold. I wished I had blankets to give out to those babies . . . and as I stood there, handing out sandwiches, that tiny seed of an idea began to grow.
Prayer blankets for babies!
When I got home I checked my shelves of stacked yarns, many left over from other projects. I had enough to make at least one blanket, maybe more. Simple granny squares made from those yarns could be stitched together make beautiful baby blankets.
My yarn goes with me everywhere now--doctor's appointments for those long waits, trips in the car when hubby is driving, and flights Granny squares are easy to work on, with supplies tucked into a Ziplock bag.
After I posted mention of my baby blanket project on my blog last December, I began hearing from readers who want to be part of it. I'm humbled and overwhelemed by the generosity and love of these "angels."
There are many prayers I whisper as I stitch together a baby blanket: that this child will be cared for physically, emotionally, and spiritually, now and in the years to come; that she will someday, somehow, understand she is loved by Someone who loves her as if she is the only one in the world to love; and especially, that she might come to know the One who says, “I have loved you with an everylasting love.”
A printed prayer in both English and Spanish will be given to the baby's family when the "blankie" is presented next December, to let his parents know that each stitch represents a prayer for their child, and that he is cherished--in our hearts just as he is in his heavenly Father's.
