20 September 2015
Vianna
Stitched-Strong Faith
Today was a beautiful walk in the country. It started with a long 5km walk on level farm
roads through vineyards and more olive trees. Breathtaking! Far in the distance
was the small village, the medieval church towering about the rest of the
village, and quaint cobblestoned narrow streets, barely enough for a car to
pass.
My treatment of my new crabby knee has been
insufficient. It swells and stings
painfully some times. The late morning through afternoon terrain did not help.
It was a veritable roller coaster. It was 100m steeply up then down and so on
for 18km. It has been a delightfully shorter day.
I chose to stay here in Vianna largely because, Cheryl
Laurie, a close family friend of Bishop Eric Pike, with whom I walked the last
Camino, is volunteering at this one particular albergue. I could not resist staying a night to catch
up on stories about the “good bishop” and his wonderful wife. Better yet, I was
surprised to learn that she was a nurse and gave me treatment for my painful
knee. What a Godcident!
Along today’s walk I had the imagination of that common
analogy of our life being a tapestry.
The threads and colors weave in and out. To see a tapestry in process,
for the inexperienced weaver, it appears a maddening confusion of threads of
many colors tied bobbing and dangling beneath the scene in process. Following this analogy, our life at times
seems a confusion of many loose ends and disconnected life directions. Only
when we look back upon the work do we see what the master weaver has artfully
woven together in the beautiful picture of our life up to where the work is in
process. There’s hope and anticipation because there’s more to the picture yet
to be crafted!
A beautiful imagery and comforting thought to consider God
as our master weaver. True? It is relieving to think that He has a beautiful
image of our life already in process. The whole Jeremiah 29 message comes
alive, “I alone know the plans I have for you.”
What grew strong in my contemplation today is what the
weaver must do when a strand of thread reaches its end? How does the rest of
the tapestry continue at those broken, interrupted treads?
The answer is that He must stitch together a new
thread. One old thread stitched together
in a tight knot with a new one. The tapestry of our life continues, but more
importantly it becomes stronger with each precisely drawn and remarkably strong
stitch. Numerous stitches are embedded in a tapestry all at different locations
and times in the big picture. One might think that the stitches are the weak
links in the work. The opposite is true. The stitches become the strongest
points in the thread, and the sum of all of the stitches make the tapestry as a
whole, stronger.
Within all that imagery, came this connection. My life, our life, has a beautiful tapestry
weaving together moment by moment. A
thread of our story comes to an end. Sometimes a thread is weak and breaks.
Sometimes the color of the thread must change to create the continuing color
scheme of the evolving story. A new stitch is needed.
I tend NOT to adjust well or enjoy the new stitching. Something in life is going well. I sense I can finally understand the general
story the tapestry appears to be taking and then a dead STOP. Something minor
to major has changed in my life. Serious illness, age related limitations begin
to occur, personal challenge, family struggle, death, new life, work stress or
work loss, finances collapse are just some of the threads of life that run
empty or the thread just breaks. Time to be stitched again occurs.
Perhaps you’re like me in the fact that I have great
confusion during long periods of stitching, or is it just my impatience with
the process? In another way, I just
don’t particularly like the new color that is now part of the big picture. And
yet another, I don’t see it as fair or even within my expectations, do I dare
say, demand for it to be within my plans.
However, it is His stitching throughout our life that is the
blessing. But more importantly, it is precisely the stitches that bring
strength. Good and bad health happen.
Death happens. Careers are lost and incomes collapse. Friends and family move
away to far off cities only rarely to be visited. People and events break our
heart. This and many more snap the threads and the master weaver stitched us
with new thread.
It’s all part of making our story of life one with “Stitched-Strong
Faith.”
Jeremiah 29 contains the truth, “God alone knows the plans
He has for us.”
Stitches and all. We need only have faith in His skillful
hands.
In great love,
Deacon Willie, DW
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