The Discarded Cloth has a Name

The LORD upholds all who fall, And raises up all who are bowed down.  [Psalm 145:14]  

A chronically sick person is in need of care and you are the main caregiver.  Every day, you use a soft cloth to wipe the brow of the ailing loved one.  You take much time to tenderly provide care in just the way this person needs.  Death comes one day, and the soft cloth is laid aside.  

Then others arrive on the scene and carelessly toss the cloth aside.  They see it as useless, old, invaluable.  They don't appreciate the key role the soft, modest cloth played in wiping away tears and pain.  The cloth ends up on the floor being trampled and dirtied.  Perhaps it will be picked up one day and washed, perhaps not.  But that doesn't change the beautiful thing that the cloth did while in service.

Christian tradition says that a woman named Veronica used a cloth to wipe the face of Jesus while he carried his cross to Golgotha, the place of the skull.  A cloth exists today, which many believe was the very cloth Veronica used.  It miraculously bears the image of a face believed to be the face of Jesus.  This cloth is known by several names:  The Veil of Veronica, the Sudarim (Latin for sweatcloth), or often it is simply called "The Veronica."  

Dear Christian, your service does not go unnoticed to the One who sees.  The cloth you used may even bear your name.