A Tapestry

In my quiet time this morning, here in cold, wet Kirksville, God used an old song, a favorite of mine when I was in high school (like I said....old) to explain to me why people I love sometimes seem to struggle the way they do....even after they give their lives to Him.



I guess it came about because I slept so well last night. I know that sounds funny but I have had trouble sleeping lately. Two nights in the last 3 or 4 months I slept straight through the night. Last night I slept, oh, maybe 10 hours or so....straight. No waking up. Not much tossing and turning for that matter. The only thing I can attribuite it to was going the entire day without....well, I guess it boils down to not worrying about those Jewels who are under the watchful eye of the Diamond Cutter. I would have sworn to you that I wasn't worried....but I must be to some extent. But this is what I came to this morning.



Even though we are all in the plan of God...He promises He has a plan for us....and that plan is to bring Him the glory and honor that alone is His, even though we are all included.....we all look different.....our lives are different and our experiences are different.....even our individual surrenders are different. Like our different lives, in all the vastly different "testimonies" we have, all of our surrenders are different. And they have to be different because all of them together make up a tapestry of what God is doing. Kind of like that ad (i'm not sure what company it is) where hundreds of small individual pictures are placed together, side by side, and create one big picture.



So the lyrics come from a Carole King song.....and here are the words that came to me this morning..

My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue

An ever changing vision of the ever changing view.

A wonderous woven mgic in bits of blue and gold

A tapestry to feel and see....impossible to hold.

A tapestry. That's what it is. With color and texture. God is weaving us together...weaving us individually first and then as His Church. So all the bends and turns in our lives, both the good and the bad, are part of the texture of who we are.



Would I rather those I love not have the pain? Absolutely. But I believe that God is using that pain to create a tapestry of His love and His grace....His power to rescue and restore. The pain gives the tapestry texture. I'm sure He would want that not one of His children suffer pain, but I'm positive He uses it.



Today I'm trusting that the pain I see has a purpose and that it will show itself as a intircate part of the life He is weaving. I'm not going to worry again for His Jewels. I'm there when He wants to use me and I'm watching the Master Weaver at work. How exciting. I know they belong to Him and no one is going to snatch them out of His hand



I praise God this morning for His care for my heart as I look to Him for guidance and direction. And if God has crossed your path with mine, know that I love you and want all He has for you. I also understand that God is weaving in His time table not my own. I love you all with my heart and soul........

He moved with some uncertainty as if he didn't know,

Just where he had come from

Or where he ought to go.

Once he reached for something gold and hanging from a tree,

And his hand came down empty.

Soon within my tapestry along the rutted road

He sat down on a river rock, and turned into a toad.

It seemed that he had fallen into someone's wicked spell.

And I wept to see him suffer, though I didn't know him well.

The work has begun. Let's see what God is doing.