God’s Beautiful Tapestry

When I was a little girl, I wanted a BIG happy family! I remember praying for it and imagining what it would be like. I thought a big family would solve the woes of my world. You see, I was pretty much an only child raised by my beloved grandmother. My parents were good people actually but they could not beat their demons of substance abuse the first sixteen years of my life. As with most folks without God in their lives, they were doing the very best they could and yes, it fell short for me. My extended family was nil due to my parent’s problems exhausting them so it was pretty much me and my grandmother on a chicken farm in southern Arkansas. Man, I can still smell one a mile away on a warm summer day. My grandmother died when I was in third grade and I went to live with my parents. Until I was sixteen, it was chaos. Then I met a young man, was baptized, and two weeks later, my folks were baptized and became clean for the first time in their adult lives. I had clean and sober parents for ten years until they died in a car wreck. God was so faithful and I know without a doubt, my grandmother’s prayers had been answered.She didn’t see them in the land of the living but the Lord was weaving those prayers into being. I KNOW without a doubt I will see Momma and Daddy again. They are safe. My nine-year-old self would have never understood.

We all have our faith stories. We are a beautiful tapestry of God who is weaving his thread of salvation through us. I love the story of Corrie ten Boom and tapestry. To use the imagery of Corrie, we are on a loom and cannot choose the colors woven in our lives but we have faith in the Weaver.

My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily.

Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.

Not ’til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And reveal the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned

He knows, He loves, He cares;
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice to Him. Corrie ten Boom

I love this poem so much. When I turn over the back of a mangled, thread-knotted tapestry and see a beautiful work of art, I know the Weaver knew what he was doing. I just couldn’t see it from my perspective.

What threads do you see in your life? What threads did you not choose? Which ones did you want that were not used? Which threads did you want to take the scissors to? I sure thought I needed a seam-ripper some days.

We are given another image in scripture, clay in the potter’s hands. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the author of Romans all used the depiction of a skillful artist molding his creation.

At nine years old, at twenty-five years old or even forty years old, I wasn’t able to see the threads and how my nine-year-old childish prayer came to fruition. I see it now with eyes full of tears and a heart of gratitude. HE is using all the colors, all the clay, all the pressure, and heat knotting off areas of thread, molding, spinning, and shaping your life for the Kingdom to come. Trust in the CREATOR for all things to be brought together for your place in the kingdom. HE IS ABLE. Maranatha! Jayme