Have you ever noticed that God is sewing? I realized one day that if I could look at the tapestry that God is sewing - and I could see it from HIS point of view, my concept of this whole sewing process would probably be very different. See, I look at the canvas from the bottom side. God is on the other side and I am just a piece of thread. Many times when I catch a glimpse of what color thread I am, I think my color must be grey or brown...some obscure color. I then imagine that if I were to be on the other side of the canvas, trying to find the postage-stamp corner where I am being sewn into the pattern, I would probably have a hard time finding myself. However, when I started to imagine what GOD must see, I realized that my color may appear grey to me because I am in the shaddow of the canvas. Perhaps as God pulls my thread up through the canvas my color is really gold or silver. Or perhaps I really am grey but I am shading the twinkle in God's eye...in the self-portrait He is stiching.

Because I can't really catch a glimpse of myself at all when I get pulled to the other side of the canvas with his stitches, I have no idea what color HE really sees in me. I have no idea what the big picture looks like. It must stretch for miles...time eternal being what it is. Somewhere on the canvas is a splotch of Moses and Joshua...in another corner is Queen Esther...I wonder what color her threads were - purple?

And yet, God is pleased to use me because I am trusting him to make me a strong, dental-floss-type of thread. I want everything HE is willing to put into me, even if it means I am the running stitch around the hem of this canvas...I imagine I really am that because we move so much that I just bump into other threads briefly and then find myself in a totally new piece of cloth!

Though I don't understand how this whole process works, I do know that I am happy being a piece of thread. I want my color to count. When God inspects His work at the end of time, I want him to see that little-two-milimeter-space-that-is-me to stand out when He looks at it. I want Him to think, "I loved sewing with that strand." Because that is my desire, I am trying not to complain when I feel Him tugging me or tying a knot. I don't want to be bitter about the running stitches He has chosen to take with me- bouncing in and out of the canvas. I want to do it with all the joy and acceptance I can possibly do it with because the color HE sees on the other side of the canvas will be dulled with complaints. Do you have a sense of your calling? Has He threaded you onto His needle and it was painful? Don't fight it. Let him start stitching. He has a beautiful plan. Jeremiah 29:11 promises that..."For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and NOT TO HARM YOU, plans for a FUTURE and a HOPE."