The Curtain Catastrophe
Back in the early days of our marriage, I gave my sweet husband numerous opportunities to regret the wife he chose. Nevertheless, he exhibited enormous patience with me, and always behaved with Christ-like tenderness and understanding.
For whatever reason, I seemed to have a propensity toward making stupid mistakes and poor choices which I later regretted. Without fail, Bobby readily came to my rescue, even when I brought trouble upon myself. He never shook his finger in my face, belittled me, or made me feel worse than I already did.
One of a multitude of mistakes I made along the way was a set of curtains I sewed for the family room in our first home. The drapes we inherited with the house were hideous. They were an odd combination of mud-colored stripes and a loose interpretation of Aztec art. As I was enjoying full-time home-keeping during my first pregnancy, I ambitiously decided to make new, replacement curtains. I spent hours at my hand-me-down circa 1959 Montgomery Ward sewing machine stitching together a set of simple, muslin window treatments.
Several days later, I proudly hung my creations and admired my handiwork. Bobby approved of my efforts and I was glad to have the project completed well before the birth of our firstborn.
Not long after my creative endeavor, a neighbor lady remarked that it was a shame that my new curtains didn’t offer much privacy, as you could more or less see through them at night when the indoor lights were on. My heart sank. I was certain that a veil of muslin was sufficient for nighttime privacy, but I was wrong. Although not completely transparent, the light-weight muslin proved translucent when lit from behind.
Because it was still early in the pregnancy, I decided I had plenty of time to buy more material and make another set of curtains. I would show my new husband how thrifty I could be by using the muslin curtains I’d made as lining for the new ones. Lined curtains would surely offer ample nighttime privacy.
I purchased an entire bolt of beautiful linen fabric for my new curtains. In my eagerness to get the project underway, I didn’t bother preshrinking the material. I reasoned that as long as I washed the finished product in cold water and line-dried them, I wouldn’t need to worry about shrinkage. Back to the sewing machine I went.
With the new curtains completed, I breathed a sigh of relief. I had successfully sewn two sets of curtains before the baby’s birth! I moved on to other projects, savoring my waning free time.
A couple of months later, the nesting instinct was in overdrive and I decided to wash the new {second set} curtains before the baby arrived. Recalling that I had not preshrunk the material, I washed them in cold water and hung them on the clothesline to dry. The noonday sun dried them quickly and left them smelling fresh and sweet.
As I happily ironed the freshly-laundered curtains ~ which had replaced the first set of curtains ~ I saw that the beautiful linen fabric had shrunk but the muslin lining had not. As any novice home-keeper being great with-child would do, I burst into tears. I was distraught that I had ruined the new curtains, wasted the money I had spent for the material, and still didn’t have decent window treatments for our family room. Even if I had time to make a third set, I didn’t have the energy or the desire. So I cried louder.
When Bobby got home that evening to find a tearful wife waiting for him, he did what any remarkable husband would do . . . he extended much-appreciated mercy and grace. He didn’t scold me, lecture me, or shame me. It was apparent to him that I had already spent the day berating myself for my blunder. Bobby graciously resisted any urge he may have felt to criticize. Instead, he gently wrapped his strong arms around my over-sized, expectant self, kissed my tears, and told me we’d buy some new curtains. Although I was thoroughly disappointed about my failed first attempts at custom window treatments, I was relieved beyond description that I didn’t have to face making a third set! I’m reasonably sure that we spent three times more than we should have for family room curtains for our first home, but after all, it took three tries to get it right. There were many more mistakes in my future following The Curtain Catastrophe, and many more incidents which provided Bobby the opportunity to demonstrate Christ-like grace and forgiveness. In spite of my many failings, my beloved husband still chooses to be merciful toward me. His godly behavior continues to inspire me to extend grace toward others and mercifully withhold condemnation.
How often it is that we humans make stupid mistakes, poor choices, and downright dumb decisions? For all of our lapses in judgement, character flaws, and even willful disobedience, there exists a limitless supply of forgiveness by our ever-merciful God. I pray that I might be as gracious as my cherished husband. I’m happy to report that as the years passed, my judgment and sewing skills improved. Our current home, an old farmhouse, has muslin curtains at 33 of its 46 windows {all the windows except those on the sun porch}. I made all of them . . . and yes, I preshrunk the fabric this time.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.” ~ Isaiah 30:18a