Years ago, my favorite way to watch TV with my kids was stretched out on the floor. That made it easy to wrestle and play during the commercials. My wife would sit on the couch doing cross stitch. Every once in a while, I would look up to see how her project was coming. I wouldn't say anything, but from my perspective, it looked terrible — just a jumble of a multitude of colored threads in tangled knots. What a waste of time, I thought!
Eventually I'd get up — this is why I don't watch TV that way anymore; I can't get up! — and sit beside her and view her work from her perspective. Looking down from above, those tangled multicolored knots in reality were intricately woven and stitched in precise patterns producing — to my amazement — a beautiful work of art!
Life is like that. Life gets so jumbled and tangled, filled with unexpected and unwanted interruptions, painful experiences and circumstances, that it makes no sense to us at all! In our hurt and frustration, we cry out "Why, God? Don't You care? Don't You see what I'm going through? Why don't you do something about the pain I'm going through?"
Someone said, "Never doubt in the dark what God has revealed to you in the light!" Though there is much we don't know about God, there are some unchanging truths that God has revealed to us in His Word and in His Son. For instance, God has revealed to us that He loves each one of us beyond measure with such a lavish love that He sacrificed His one and only Son, Jesus, for us that we might truly live now and forever.
God has also revealed that He knew us the moment we were conceived, and loved us and poured His grace into our lives. While we were still being formed in the womb, God made a plan and purpose for each of our lives — a good plan, filled with hope and destiny. That means nothing can happen to us that hasn't first been sifted through God's sovereign design and purpose for us. Even the most tangled mess we experience can be redeemed by God and turned around into something that is good for us.
The next time you are tempted to give up in frustration and cry out to God "Why?", remember that life is like a cross stitch. From our perspective, sometimes life appears haphazard, random, and without purpose or meaning. But from God's view, the things we experience and endure are part of an amazing, intricately planned design for our lives. You are God's masterpiece — an amazing work of art! And God's attention is on you. His love for you is unfailing and never falters or wavers, even when the circumstances you are going through don't make any sense. Remember, especially in those times of doubt and frustration, God is forming and shaping your life according to His great design for you — one stitch at a time.
The Rev. William Thomas is pastor at Hereford United Methodist Church. He can be reached at pastor@herefordumc.org.
