Among the many wonderful Christmas gifts I received this year, one which brought me to tears was a beautiful handmade quilt from my Aunt Ann (the picture really doesn’t do it justice). She started planning it over a year ago when I was still on the World Race, and she collected fabrics from the countries that we had ministered in. Each individual piece came from regions of India, Australia, Southeast Asia, and so on…
Just looking at it reminded me of all the places I’d been and colorful memories created in those 11 months of 2011. I started thinking of the bigger picture of life and how God is the Master Weaver, that he is quilting all the pieces together for our good and only he can see the outcome. One of my favorite verses this summer was Ecclesiastes 3:11,
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”
When I look back on this past year of my life I see a whole lot of little scraps of material that don’t seem to match the rest of it and I don’t see how they fit. They don’t seem the right colors or size or patterns. Sure, it’s easy to believe that big events like birth and death are guided by the hand of God, but sometimes it seems like the everyday stuff isn’t as sovereign… like we’re left on our own to figure it out. Even if God proves faithful, we so easily forget and think its up to our own efforts this time around. But I KNOW that nothing is wasted in God’s economy, no scrap that goes unused, and many times the hardest trials and disappointments prove to show the deepest colors and hues for his artistry. We know that hindsight is 20/20 and I am excited to be on the other side looking back, but even now I can celebrate the redemption that I know is already there.
I am humbled when I think of what God has done in me this year and all the work that’s still left to do. He has woven so many other amazing people’s stories with my own and I’m blown away when I realize how many wonderful new friends I have that weren’t there a year ago (here are just a few pictured below).
Wishing you a year of abundant blessings and new adventures in 2013!
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”. – 1 Corinthians 2:9
