THE
EMBROIDERER
”For I know the plans I have for
you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
When I was a small
child, my grandmother used to sew a great deal, and I would sit at her feet and look up from the floor to ask what she was working on. She would
say that she was embroidering. And when I
asked her what did embroidering mean, she would patiently explain that embroidering meant
using a wooden or metal hoop to secure a chosen fabric, then making designs on it with a needle. From time to time as she worked, I would see her change the color of the thread in the needle.
The hoop contained two round, interlocking pieces and I would watch her carefully place a piece of
fabric on the smaller of the two, then fit the slightly larger one over the smaller one. This allowed her to pull the material taut for embroidering. To me, it resembled the top of a small drum.
From my vantage point at her feet, I
could only see the back or the underside of her embroidery as I watched her work within
the boundaries of that wooden embroidering hoop she
held in her hand. There she would sit, her sharp, shiny needle
threaded with a brilliant color thread, making bright in-roads on a solid color cloth.
I complained to her that it sure looked messy from where I sat at her feet
looking upwards. The threads and knots that I
could see from the underside were all different colors that looked impossibly intertwined
and tangled. It looked a mess from my vantage
place on the floor, and I kept telling her how odd it looked to me.
SHE would smile, look down and gently say, "My child, you go about your
playing and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you
see it from my side." As I went to play outside, I wondered why she was using some
dark threads along with the bright ones and why it all seemed so jumbled and disordered
from my point of view. There was nothing
beautiful there that I could see.
A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Grandmother's voice calling,
"My child come sit on my knee." Climbing
up and guided by a loving hand, I saw something I
could not see before. I could not believe the
beauty I saw on the top, because from underneath it looked so sloppy with tied threads
everywhere. Then Grandmother would say to me. "From underneath it did look messy and
jumbled, with strings of thread in a knot, but you did not realize that there was a plan
on the top. It was a design that was carefully prepared and I was only following that
plan. As you look at it from my side, you can now see what I was doing." I was surprised and thrilled to see beautiful
flowers in pure, stunning, life-like colors
spreading across the top of the hoop. How
beautiful it looked!
THIS is true of our lives as we make our way, trying to do what the Lord would
have us do. We cannot see how our lives look
to God from the top. We can’t
always see the divine reward of our actions in this life
because of the entanglements, knots and huddles
we face, the loose threads of uncertainty, the messy seams we can never hope to untangle
with a human hand.
MY vision only allows me to see a limited sphere here and now from a human perspective.
I cannot see the possibilities in all that
I do. I cannot know that the dark
threads represent all the toils, trials and pitfalls of my life,
and are being lovingly
and patiently embroidered into a thing of infinite beauty by God
and His angels. Even as I push forward in His name, He is embroidering the suffering,
tribulations, tears, hurts, betrayals and all that I have faced into a masterpiece of eternal perfection.
ALMIGHTY
GOD, Who created this
whole world, is continuously at work creating something precious out of all our human
tangles. He takes the jumble and broken
threads of our lives and embroiders them into something so dazzling, so beautiful that we
will stand in awe someday, looking at the unique work He has lovingly wrought just for you
and for me.
WE will see our lives’ embroidery laid out in
precious splendor, held gently within His Infinite Hands. All
the tattered knots and tangles will become a perfect testament of our obedience and
faithfulness, for only He can look beyond our human frailties to read the hearts of
us. Our lives will be smoothed out, taking on the beauty God sees on the top. There will be no underside on His master
embroidery hoop.
AND so, through the many times and years that I
have looked up to heaven and said, "Father what are You doing?" And He has
lovingly answered, "I am embroidering your life."
I say, "But it looks like such a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads
seem so dark. Why can't they all be bright?" The
Father seems to tell me, "My child, you go about your business of doing My business,
and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on my knee and you will see my plan for
your life from My side."
Ephesians 2:10 tells us “For we are
God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good
things He planned for us long ago.”
”For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my
ways,” says the LORD. -= Isaiah 55:8
Anonymous
storyline modified and enhanced by Kathy Bernard
- Publisher of CatholicView
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