COWs in the craft room

“But you are God’s chosen and special people. You are a group of royal priests and a holy nation. God has brought you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Now you must tell all the wonderful things that he has done. The Scriptures say,” 1 Peter 2:9 CEV

One of my favorite commercials these days are the California Dairy commercials. In one commercial, there is a group of girls having a play date. The moms are sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee and talking. At one point the noise from the upstairs bedroom gets out of hand so the hosting mom calls upstairs, telling them to keep the noise down. The scene flashes to the bedroom where the black and white Holstein cow is the instigator.

That commercial reminded me of an elite group I belonged to several years ago: the C-O-W Sisterhood. I'm not sure what it stood for - maybe "Crafts Or Whatever" - but I proudly wore the stamped "C-O-W" letters to church on my right arm. Whatever the letters stood for, to me, they signified a bonding time together with the young teen girls in our church.

Those girls loved crafting. Since I had a whole room full of card making tools and sewing supplies, I invited the group of giggly girls over to the house to play in my craft room.

 No rules - just be careful with the tools and put one thing back before getting another out so I didn't have a huge mess to deal with later. Every scrap of paper, every tool and every crafting supply was available to use.

What a fun time! The girls quickly busied themselves with projects and just talked all afternoon. Somehow cows became a theme of the day. When suppertime rolled around, we carried the fun into the kitchen and decorated pizzas.

All too soon it was over, but before heading off to church, we each received the "C-O-W" stamps on our right arms and promised to do it again. Of course, the ink smudged and  got on everything else, but to me, it became a symbol of bonding with the girls - a way to impact their lives with the Gospel through an afternoon of fun.

God has stamped his image on our hearts, bringing us into his elite group of chosen people. He has given us each unique gifts and talents to use to shine into the darkness of this world so that others might see his light to follow him.

What unique talents and abilities has God given you? How can you use those abilities to reach the world around you for him?