Doves On Distant Oaks

God's Tapestry

Soon after my mother died, I was tasked with clearing out her "stuff." Among her belongings I found my grandmother's Bible. It contained a finely embroidered bookmark. It was remarkable for its delicate workmanship. With colorful threads that formed images and a verse from the Bible, it could easily be classified as a true work of art sewn from the most basic elements of linen and cotton. Can you imagine the splendor of the design when sometimes they are made with gold and silver silk thread?

Yet, when I turned the bookmark over and looked at the back, it was a mess. Different colored threads crisscrossed and recrossed one another. Matted down fabric with loose ends dangled everywhere. It was a smorgasbord of thread spaghetti.

Relating the bookmark to our lives, the back side is what we tend to see when we're deep into our trials, undergoing the labor pains of our spiritual growth. We know all the right things to think, do, and say as we try to put on a brave front. We attempt to be strong with the Lord, knowing he is with us always. Yet, when our struggles lengthen and no answers come, our spirit becomes weaker and our diligence fails. We invariably start to say, "Where is the glory in this, Lord?" All we see is the mess.

Sometimes we even figure God needs help and so we begin to pitch in … to nudge God into greater action. We may tug on the hanging threads or even pull out a needle and try to make an adjustment ourselves. Which, of course, only manages to make a bigger mess. That's when we become frustrated, stare at the mass of errant spiderweb of threads, and think this is never going to work.

Abraham did that. When God told him that he would have a child late in his life—very late—he couldn't believe it since his wife was barren. Sarah, his wife, burst out laughing when Abraham told her. But God is no jokester and meant every word He said. Even when God told Abraham that he would father nations, he was skeptical. So skeptical that he decided God needed a hand, or handmaiden to be ironic. So he rounded up Sarah's handmaiden, Hagar, and made a son on his own. That's when God, in his timing, gave Sarah a son named Jacob. If only Abraham had waited.

When God's perfect time arrives, He beckons us, saying, "Come around to the front side and let me show you the beauty of what I've been working on ... just for you." That's when we fall to our knees in utter delight and worship the living God for what he gives to those that don't deserve such splendor.

That's how is was with Moses. He was a nobody, living out in the desert, seemingly far from God's thoughts. He was probably looking at a pile of lamb's wool lying on the desert floor thinking there's no way this can become a tapestry. One of my favorite quotes is from Michael Catt, producer of the film Fireproof, who said:

Moses was a forgotten man in the wilderness, but God had Moses right where he wanted him and met him at the burning bush.

Always remember there is a front side to the needlework of your trials, waiting to be revealed at just the right moment by a loving God. What wonders God has planned for us if we only allow Him to finish His work.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

– Ephesians 2:8-10