Resistance is not only futile, it’s costly. We spend so much time looking for what we think is missing that we often fail to realize what we’re actually missing by not taking hold of what’s been placed in our hands.
Like weavers before a loom, the threads we need have been given to us. And the pattern is already set. So our choices are limited, but full of possibility…though maybe not always the kind we would hope for.
Wasted Moments
Sometimes we spend our time longing for a different pattern. Inevitably, such longing leads us into scheming, intent on changing or rearranging the pattern of our lives. We have our picture in mind, and so we beg, borrow and steal the threads we want in order to create the vision we desire. Or we manipulate what we have until we think it looks more like what we’ve imagined in our hearts. Rarely does such a pattern yield the promised results. And rarely is the dreamer of such a life truly satisfied.
Sometimes we spend our time in search of fallen threads, or missing pieces to the pattern we think we know is being formed. We understand that God has laid the plans for our lives, and we want to see those plans unfold. Except that we don’t seem to have what we need.
And rather than take up the threads we’ve been given, rather than weave with what we have, we despair over what we don’t have. We waste time. We complain. We, ultimately, end up missing moments that were meant to contribute to the tapestry of our lives. And some of those are moments we will never get back. Sadly, at the end of such a road, we may be left with an unfinished pattern, with threads that were never put to their intended use.
Purposed Moments
And then, sometimes, we encounter a life so engaged in the work of weaving, so intent on living the life they’ve been given and using every moment – no matter the color of the thread in their hands – that it makes us want to embrace our own life with greater intention. It makes us want to stop wasting time, and start believing again in the beautiful truth that there is a pattern, and a Pattern-Maker, and that none of what’s before us is meant to be wasted.
I want to live such a life.
What Will You Do With What You’ve Been Given?
What do you hold in your hands today? Are they threads of crimson, drenched with the blood of tour broken heart and shattered dreams? Are they threads of gold and silver, rich with blessing hard-won by perseverance? Are they threads of black or blue, pulled from the depths of a mourning you wish you could forget? Are they orange and yellow, full of the joy that has risen with the morning sun of a brand new day in your life?
Whatever they be, put your hands to the loom and weave! Sing as you weave! Take what you’ve been given, and trust that, as you weave it into the pattern, it will contribute as it was purposed to, and the next threads will come as you need them.
Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
You may not see the pattern clearly now, or for many days or years yet to come. Let it trouble you not! Just weave, and just believe that a pattern there is indeed. And the One Who designed the pattern of your life knows exactly what threads you will need, and has promised to supply every one.
“The Lord will complete what is His purpose for me. Lord, your gracious love is eternal; do not abandon your work in me.” Psalm 138:8 (International Standard Version)
“God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and for godliness. This power was given to us through knowledge of the One Who called us by His own glory and integrity.” 2 Peter 1:3 (GOD’S WORD Translation)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. Think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
A Much Bigger Picture
Let us be busy in the work of weaving today, women of breakthrough! And may our songs rise to the heavens and be carried on the wind, drawing other hearts and hands to their looms, too. Because my pattern is meant to meet with your pattern, and yours to someone else’s, until together, our lives intersect to reveal the grand tapestry of God’s plan for all of humanity.
I want my part of that tapestry to be complete.
Let me, then, waste nothing. No moments, no threads, no thoughts. Instead, let me weave, and let me sing, that God may be glorified in that day when the bigger picture – which I cannot now see – is revealed. In that day, how we will rejoice to see the way our lives have become a part of something so rich and beautiful.
I have set my heart to weave with purpose today, looking to the horizon of that promised day. Will you do the same, my sister?
She Dances Over Graves 