Thread of Guidance

“Listen to me, Dad!”

Dad rolled the creeper from under the car, but did not stand up. “What is it, Tanner?”

“I want to know what you are doing,” said Tanner, the eight-year-old boy. “I want to help.”

“I’m changing the CV axle. I’ve taken off the brake and the outer tie rod. I’m lowering the control arm with the ball joint. Then I will pull the CV axle. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

“No,” admitted Tanner, “but I can learn.”

“Most of these pieces are heavy for me to lift. Let alone an eight-year-old like you. Besides, there’s no room for you under here.”

“But--.”

“Ask me again when you're a teenager.” Dad rolled the creeper back under the car.

Tanner left to go to the house where he found his mother in her home office. She sat at the computer screen with hands on the keyboard. Rows and columns full of numbers covered the screen.

“What are you doing, Mom?”

“I’m bringing the spreadsheets for my business up-to-date. April 15 is a week away. I need them done by then.”

“April 15?”

“That’s when taxes are due.”

“I want to learn to do a spreadsheet,” said Tanner.

“You don’t like math,” said Mom.

“I can learn.”

“Changing one row and column affects all the others. Have you learned about spreadsheets in school?”

“No.”

“Do you know what a math formula is?”

“No,” said Tanner.

“I use them all the time as I work on the computer,” said the mother. "I plug in my sales information, and it calculates the profit after expenses. Have you had algebra? You need that to solve for an unknown, like how much money I made.”

“No.” Eagerness crept into his voice. “But I have entered words on a computer a lot.”

“I really need to get this done. I’ll have more time after tax day.”

Tanner’s face drooped.

His mother took note of his face, and stopped momentarily. “Would you like to know the baseball statistics for each of your games?” she asked. “I could use that information to teach you how to make your own spreadsheet.”

“What would you use?”

“Runs batted in, hits, and home runs. We could include it for each inning. Then figure per cent of improvement,” said Mom.

“Can we do it for my teammates?”

“Yes. We’ll make each one a personal report. After April 15.”

Tanner looked around the room at some papers spread out on a table. “I’ll get these papers for you.”

“No,” said Mom urgently. Relieved at seeing Tanner not picking up the papers, she said, “I have them in the order I need them.”

“Show me. I’ll learn.”

“I told you no.”

Tanner whined. “I wanted to learn to fix cars with Dad. He won’t let me til I'm a teenager. You won’t let me help. You say to,” Tanner sing-songed the words. “‘Wait until April 15.’ I want to learn something grown-ups do.”

“Some things we must tell you ‘no’. Other things, ‘wait’. You may as well get used to it. Even God answers prayers that way. And I know an adult who will say yes. Your grandmother is an adult and knows how to sew. Ask her to teach you.”

“That’s girly stuff,” he said making a face.

“It’s good to learn to do something you don’t want to.”

“When will I ever sew?”

“When you want to repair a rip or darn a hole in your clothes. When you want to understand a girlfriend who makes her own clothes. When you want to impress friends that you know something they don’t.”

The boy pressed his lips together and sighed. Looking down, he said, “I’m going to my room to play games on my cell phone.”

***** Tanner resists going to grandmother *****

“Tanner,” said Mom. “We’re going to the Chamber of Commerce banquet tonight. You’re staying with Grandma.”

Opening his mouth wide to pronounce each word, Tanner said, “I. Don’t. Want to!”

“You don’t have a choice.”

“I guess I’ll play games on my phone all night.”

“No. You. Won’t!” said Tanner’s father. “I checked how many hours you have been on your phone. Waaaay too many! You’re leaving your phone here.”

“But what if my friends call?”

“You’ll talk to them in school. And Grandma complained you weren’t spending enough time visiting with her.”

What a boring night, thought Tanner. All she has is old junk.”

***** at Grandma’s house *****

Tanner plopped on Grandma’s couch, crossed his arms, and pouted.

“Your mother,” said Grandma, “said you wouldn’t ask, but she wants me to teach you how to sew.”

The boy’s forehead wrinkled. “Whaaaat?! No!”

“Your father said if you don’t, he will find an appropriate punishment.”

Tanner remembered going to his aunt’s house to help care for the newborn. His lip curled up. And having to change the baby’s diapers.

Grandma put her hands on her hips. “Sometimes God puts us in a situation we don’t like to teach us a lesson.”

Tanner’s shoulders sagged as he followed her to a sewing machine. She took off the cover and exposed a shiny black machine.

Pointing, she said, “Sit in my chair and put your feet on the plate under the machine.”

He hadn’t even realized it was there, but he obeyed. “Where’s the on/off switch?”

“Doesn’t have one. Doesn’t use electricity.”

“No electricity?” said Tanner with raised eyebrows.”

“It uses foot power.” Pointing, she said, “Here is the needle.” She laid her right hand on a wheel on the right side of the main part of the machine. “This makes it go up and down.” She gave it a turn.

Tanner started at the feeling of movement on his feet. “How old is this machine anyway?”

“115 years. My grandmother bought it new in 1910.”

“Why don’t you get a new one?”

“Why should I? It’s paid for, it works, and it holds memories for me. I see it as a thread running through our family. My grandmother taught my mother who taught me. I taught your mother to use it, but I’m afraid she will break the thread of my memories.” She smiled at Tanner. “But it won’t be broken since you’re here.”

Tanner’s mouth puckered on one side, but he didn’t say anything.

“Put your hand on the wheel to turn it while you watch the needle. Once it starts, you keep it going with your feet.”

The boy followed the instructions. “Hey, I’m strengthening my legs for running.”

“Now, I’ve already got the bobbin in.” She showed it under a gray metal plate. Then she placed a spool of white thread on the upright spool holder.

“Now, thread the needle.” She showed him the path the thread needed to take. “The end of the thread goes through the eye of the needle."

“I can’t see the hole to put the thread through.”

“Try it anyway.”

The thread bent just as it got to the hole.

“I don’t like this,” said Tanner.

“God doesn’t let us get out of doing the job he assigns. And I’m not letting you get by without threading the needle.”

After several more failed attempts, the young boy pounded his fists on the sewing machine cabinet.

“It’s impossible! I quit!” He pushed the chair back, but his grandmother was strong enough to hold him in position.

“When I get mad,” said Grandma, “I stop and pray. Like the Psalmist says, I pour out my heart before God. Now you do that. He already knows how you feel. You might as well tell Him what you think.”

He breathed out a big breath before starting. “God, I’m mad at You for making me do this girlish thing. It’s impossible to thread it. Send a lightning bolt through this machine so I don’t have to sew.”

Before he could continue, Grandma started praying. “Thank you for my grandson. Thank you for the sewing machine. Help Tanner thread the needle and me to know how to help him. In Jesus’ name Amen.”

The boy calmed down, but still felt a little angry. "I'll believe that will make a difference when I see it."

Grandma said, “I know what I forgot.”

She unscrewed and removed the foot from around the needle that held the material down. Out of a drawer, she pulled a blank index card and put it under the needle. “Here,” she said, handing him a scissor. Cut off the end of the thread to get a fresh point...Try it now.”

“I can see the hole!” said Tanner. The thread went right through the hole the first try.

“Now the fun begins,” said Grandma. “Put on the presser foot and let the machine pull the material through.”

Grandma made Tanner use scrap material before giving him the ripped shirt that his mother had sent along. He sewed the shirt without any problems.

“Do you want to see some of my quilts? I’ve made them only on this machine.”

“Sure.”

In her spare bedroom, Grandma held up a quilt with a lot of triangles. “This design is called Flying Geese.” She set it down and showed him one with strips sewn together. “This is called Log Cabin.”

Pointing, Tanner said, “That’s a pretty one with all the colors and circles.”

“That’s my favorite. I made it when I got married. It’s called Double Wedding Rings." She lovingly handled it. "My, but I was proud of it. I took it to the county fair, but it didn’t even place. Judges found threads I missed snipping. They thought the pieces didn’t match good enough at the corners.” She looked from the quilt to Tanner. “I learned humility that day. Lamentation 3 says, ‘My soul hath [them] still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.’ Would you be willing to let me read the story of Nebuchadnezzar from the Bible? He learned humility the hard way.”

“I’m willing to listen.”