With their haphazard designs, crazy quilts are a lot like life. Lucinda Secrest McDowell, in her book Quilts from Heaven (Broadman and Holman, 1999, p. 129), explained that such quilts became popular just after the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. That's when quilters took a liking to Japan's asymmetrical art. Scraps of velvet, silks and brocades, joined by fancy needlework, became lap robes and such for fancy parlor décor.
Until reading her book, I didn't know that! I have something of a “crazy quilt” my late mother created of random triangles more than half a century ago—places of it now rotting--as she used up scraps from her prolific sewing hobby. I just figured her quilt showed thrift in action. The idea of impressing others never came to mind.
But then...aren't there times when people might put on airs or use fancy words to try to impress? I admit, people don't usually throw around high-brow words, like “tumescent” (used of pompous or pretentious language) or the similar “altiloquest” (basically the same definition). But I've experienced situations in which someone embellished common words with prefixes or suffixes, creating highfalutin “non-words” whose intent and effect was to wound the reader or hearer.
God, who granted us the gifts of verbal and written communication, is honored when we use those gifts well. But abuse of language isn't new. As I read Paul's epistles, I notice how often he had to remind folks to watch their words. Like this: Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29). The King James version ends it: “... that it may minister grace unto the hearer.” Grace: a simple, strong word for doing what honors God.
More often than we want, life will seem “discombobulated,” like the mishmash of fabrics in a crazy quilt. In this imperfect world, we endure the ragged pieces of sorrow, hurt, disappointment and grief. But there's a better plan ahead, in Heaven. The aging apostle John, given a vision behind the curtain hiding God's restored --recombobulated--future, saw the praise and glory of dwelling in God's presence forever (Revelation 21:5).
By the way, if you're driven to impress, here's the 2020 winner of the longest English word:
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
It refers to lung disease caused by silica dust. Not something I'd use in everyday conversation.
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