The Master Weaver

This Thought for Today has been written by Dave Wilson.

​As we are about to enter a time when the restrictions of lockdown are lifted and we hopefully begin to restore some normalcy to life, some of us will undoubtedly be happy, but there may also be those who are grieving and sad, or possibly confused or hurting and thinking "What was that all for?" or "Why did God allow that to happen?". Thinking about this recently, I remembered hearing a story about Corrie ten Boom.  Corrie was the youngest child of a jeweler and watchmaker and became the first woman to be licensed as a watchmaker in the Netherlands in 1922.  A devout Christian, she also started a youth club for teenage girls, where she would teach Bible, sewing, and other creative skills. 
 
Almost exactly 80 years ago, in May of 1940, the Nazis invaded the Netherlands. One of the first gatherings they banned was Corrie’s youth club. Over the next few years, Corrie’s family became active in the Dutch underground, hiding and providing safe refuge for Jews and vulnerable members of the Dutch Resistance, driven by their faith. The Gestapo raided their home, known as The Hiding Place, in 1944, and Corrie and her family were taken to concentration camps, where she continued to lead Bible studies and worship in the midst of the worst conditions, with her father dying early on, and her sister dying just twelve days before Corrie was miraculously released, Even after, she continued to care for those who had been deemed “less than human” by the Nazis. There isn’t time or space here to tell the rest of her story, but this is the common thread: no matter how dark her future seemed, she trusted in the God she knew so well. She testified to His goodness in the storm. 
 
Later in life, when she told her story around the world, she would hold up this tapestry, showing her audience only the back of the fabric. 
​

From this perspective, it makes little sense. It looks chaotic. It looks like a random mess! She then went on to quote the poem The Master Weaver by Grant Colfax Tullar:

My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily
 
Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.
 
Not ’til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And reveal the reason why.
 
The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned
 
He knows, He loves, He cares;
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice to Him.

Then she would slowly turn the tapestry over to reveal this beautiful, bejeweled crown.

“This is what God sees…from His perspective…a masterpiece!”
 
If you find yourself dismayed at the past or worried about the future, then a large part of that comes from our perspective - as  the poem says - we are looking at the tapestry from the wrong side! In God's wisdom, he does not always allow us to see the tapestry of life from his perspective (although he sometimes graciously gives glimpses). What we need to learn do is put our faith and trust directly in the skill of the Master Weaver, knowing that He has the best plans for us, and the tapestry he weaves for us will be wonderfully and particularly personal and beautiful for each one of us.
 

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.
​Corrie ten Boom

Dave Wilson