Just One Word- Madewell

Madewell

Lora Parsons

The Ashland Beacon

I love to shop on Poshmark, especially at bedtime. It’s a website and app where you can buy high-quality, used clothing for a great price—and sell clothing you no longer want or need. I love the process of searching for just the right item. I enter my search terms, get hundreds of results back, and then the quest to narrow it down to just one begins. As I scroll, I can “heart” items to save for later, or I can begin the process of purchasing if I find just the perfect thing.

One thing I’ve recently come to love is searching by brand name, which has led me to Stitch Fix items. Stitch Fix is a subscription box service where they send you a monthly selection of clothes in your size, chosen just for you by a professional stylist based on your personal style. You decide what to keep and what to return.

What I love about this is how put-together these boxes look. Magazines used to have full-page styling spreads that often featured a couple of outfits you could mix and match, along with a purse, shoes, jewelry, accessories, and makeup to complete multiple looks from a few basic purchases. Stitch Fix boxes look like they come straight from one of those spreads. Everything is so well coordinated that you could almost create a complete look from any combination of pieces in the box.

For whatever reason, those magazine pages always intrigued me, and Stitch Fix makes it seem like someone has figured out how to bring those pages to life. In searching for Stitch Fix items, I’ve discovered a few brands I’m consistently drawn to. One of those is 41Hawthorn, which often features really pretty floral prints in colors that captivate me. I’ve also realized I love Daniel Rainn—perhaps for similar reasons, or maybe because I just love a good rainy day. Either way, these have become two favorites.

Recently, I came across another brand that I initially searched for just because the clothes are cute. But after a message Trey shared at church, it’s taken on a whole new meaning. The brand is called Madewell—one word. No hyphen, no space. Just one single word, pressed together like it belongs that way.

These words appear in Mark 5—of course, as two separate words—three different times in a story-within-a-story account of two of Jesus’ miracles. On His way to heal Jairus’ daughter, He is approached by a woman who needs healing herself. Jesus’ plan is to go to the young girl and meet her need, but another need arises along the way.

When that happens to me, I tend to get a little flustered. My heart starts beating faster, my mind gets wrapped up in the task at hand, and I feel derailed by the interruption. But Jesus is unflustered by it—though His disciples don’t react the same way.

The woman who touched the hem of His garment in order to be healed tried not to interrupt or change His direction. She hoped to slip in unnoticed, have her need met quietly, and slip back out—changed forever, but without changing Him or His course. But Jesus had other plans. He stopped what He was doing, gave her the attention she wouldn’t have dared request, healed both her physical and spiritual needs, and then returned to His original plan—unbothered by what seemed like a delay.

And this wasn’t a delay of little consequence! When Jairus first asked Jesus to come with him, his daughter was still alive—nearing death, yes, but not yet gone. Perhaps she would have died even if Jesus had gone straight there, but at the moment the request was made, it was a plea for healing. On His way to perform one healing, Jesus performed another. That first healing turned into a darker situation, and He had to raise the young girl back to life. The woman was made well. And then the daughter was made well—even though she had already passed.

I feel certain that the brand of clothing I’ve come to enjoy is called Madewell because that’s a quality we appreciate in clothing. We love when items wash well without the fabric crinkling. We appreciate not having to worry about shrinkage because the material is high-quality. Seams that don’t roll and hemlines that don’t shred—those are the marks of clothing we’d buy again and again.

As great as it is to find the perfect pair of jeans and a cute blouse to match—even those labeled “Madewell” will eventually fade, wear out, and need replacing. But when Jesus reaches toward the parts of us that need healing, we are truly made well.

He is unbothered by our needs and is able to meet them even in the midst of meeting the needs of those all around us. It doesn’t matter if we’re the main story or the side story, the intended plan or Plan B, the one being touched or the one reaching out. The result is the same. When the Master Designer stamps us, our tag also reads: Madewell.