Our Advent Word of the Day for today is “honest”.

I was pondering what to lift up, of the many illustrations of honesty that cross my path each day, when the mail woman delivered a package from Doe Martin. She is the genius behind two of my favorite stoles (or “scarf things” as people call them when protest at the Capitol) . Her company is called Bless My Stole.

Signing a license on Idaho’s first day of marriage equality

A few months ago I contacted Doe to see if she could take some fabric and make a stole for me. She agreed to take on the project and it arrived in the mail today.

I’ll talk more about my new stole in a minute because I LOVE it. But I thought of Doe with “honest” because each time I have ordered a stole from her, she has not charged me anything for it until after she has delivered it. With my stole was a bill, which I will promptly pay.

At church we are in the midst of having a contract notarized and sending in a huge deposit to use a facility for an event next year and while I’m fine with paying deposits and all that, it is a stark contrast to the way Doe does business. I hope people are always honest enough to pay her for her beautiful work. I’m afraid to ask her if she ever gets stuck with an unpaid bill.

This summer at Montreat Youth Conferences, the work crew took some art that had been made during worship and keynote and they cut stoles out of the fabric for me and the other stage leadership (you can see them below).

in its original form

I love it. One side of the stole was the “messy” painting that typifies our life and the other side was white, washed clean in God’s forgiveness.

That’s what I sent to Doe. The fabric wasn’t finished and I was afraid it would fray and fall apart. So Doe agreed to make me an actual stole from the fabric.

hard to selfie a stole

And here’s the detail from the neck, using strips of the painted fabric.

So, now I’m writing a check to put in the mail today, grateful for the honesty of Doe Martin and the memories of Montreat that will come up each time I wear that stole.