Eat the Crumbs

When I heard that a couple of young women (Abby Carter and Sarah Prime) had set up an ethical clothing company to raise funds for church planting in Scotland's housing schemes I was a little taken aback! I asked Abby Carter some questions about this new venture.

Abby, thank for talking to Ragged Theology - what was/is your vision for 'Eat the Crumbs'?

To be quite honest a vision for etc has not been thoroughly contemplated or considered. There has been a journey (which is explained in the somewhat long-winded ‘ABOUT’ page on our website for those who are interested) however with some things, they are born out of a natural flowing engagement with the fun qualities God gifts to us: creativity, community, and a desire to make a difference. One of the verses that has inspired us is: “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” Psalm 37: 23-24. Sarah and I connect through our sense of humour and borderline silliness. If you mix our banter in with reading faith-based books together, listening to sermons at our local Church and enjoying Christian hip hop music, you apparently get a childish desire to start a t-shirt company. 

Eat the crumbs is a creative expression of our personal belief in one God, who loves all people through the call of the gospel and the offer of salvation. The name comes from the Canaanite woman who, when told by Jesus that it is not right to take the bread from the children to feed the dogs, humbly replies that even the dogs get to eat the crumbs (Matt 15:21-28). We want that desperation for the Word of God ourselves. We do ‘eat the crumbs’ to share with others this desperation. We do it to enjoy Him and His gifts to us, and we are motivated by the opportunity to raise some money for a building for our church. The rest of what might be called a ‘vision’ we humbly hand over to God and try to be obedient to his leading. I can tell you though it has already been exciting to experience some of the encouragements and develop some connections with inspiring people through etc. The vision is God's. God is good. Always.

Tell us more about how the story of the Canaanite women inspired you?

This story stands out so starkly to me. It is prefaced by Jesus explaining every dark habit which defiles us - the things that make us unworthy of His attention: “Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” vs.17-19

Then the story is followed by Jesus abundantly providing for four thousand people! So I came to the ‘faith of a Canaanite woman’ story already feeling as lowly as a dog after recognising all that defiles me BUT I came away from this story knowing my Saviour provides abundantly for my unworthy soul. 

So what happens in between our owning our lowly, sinful, hungry state and our being worthy to be sustained beyond measure?

The image of a table happens. Two entities meet at this table; the master who sets the food on the table and the dogs who are under the table looking for the crumbs that might fall off. What a picture of what we sinners actually deserve; not sitting at the table and tasting the food but underneath unable to even see the food. But this table top is more; and this dog is loved, not rejected.

I am inspired by the Canaanite women, firstly, because she is bold and persistent in calling out to her master but secondly, and most importantly, she is willing to be humbled by him. She is not offended, she continues to call him “Lord”. She doesn’t give up, she is increasingly eager. Humility is not weak, humility is a right recognition of who we are next to the ultimate God. Humility is strong and we should be eager for it to be attributed to us. 

Anyway back to the table. Although we have clearly been lead into this story knowing the low entity we are to relate to - it is ok - this is good for us. It is good as we are under the table of a compassionate master: “Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 'I have compassion for these people'" vs 32.

This master does not let His dogs go hungry. Even the crumbs He allows to find our lips are worth more than gold. Jesus repeatedly prefaces his teaching with “TRULY I TELL YOU” throughout Matthew, and so know anything we are given from His word is truth. This is a precious gift from a compassionate master’s table to sustain us in a defiled world. 

Tell us about the logo for Eat the Crumbs? 

Taking inspiration from the story of the Canaanite women it needed to be bold and direct. The eager ‘e’ has its mouth open to consume the falling ’t’ and ‘c’. They are falling from a rectangle which represents the table of the master. The table has breaks in it, which corresponds to the breaks in the content of the ‘e’s mouth. These symbolise the crumbs being God’s word to us; like pages in the Bible (tilt head to see it looks like a book, a bit :) but also that there is no solid surface or barrier between us and our master, the table was broken when Jesus died for our lowly, sinful, state and replaced it with an eternally worthy, well-fed soul state! 

We wish Abby and Sarah (Prime) all the best with this new venture. Please support them by ordering from the website here.