Some fields are a darned sight more deceiving than others and when you first consider committing to one that looks good, you just never know what the ground will turn up!
I remember several years ago following our home extension, I decided the time had come to sort out the garden. It needed digging over so I could plant vegetables so I started with bulging enthusiasm. Some weeks, three skips of rubble and a hefty stock of paracetamol and radox bathsalts later, I had level ground and soil that no longer ressembled the remains of a Time Team dig!!! The wretched ground looked SO much easier than it turned out to be but it transpired that the builders hadn't put as much rubble in the skips that they should have. They just covered a lot up with soil! I'm sure the back garden was lowered by several feet by the time I had finished clearing. Had I known how much stuff I would turn up, I could have constructed an outbuilding!
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So what is my point?
I guess it's just looking at life and the stuff it throws up at you.
There is a saying...
' IF YOU WANT TO MAKE GOD LAUGH, TELL HIM YOUR PLANS!'
And isn't that the way life turns out! I can look back on times of life when all seemed wonderful and the future seemed generally set, with room for a few outside-the-box adventures on the way but generally, all quite secure and manageable, mainly predictable. Then God laughed!
It puts me in mind of a lovely poem...
THE WEAVER
My life is but a weaving between the Lord and me
I may not choose the colours - He knows what they should be
Oft' times He weaves in sorrow; and I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside
Not till 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
I know the pictures are of embroidery rather than weaving but it gives a good illustration of the same idea. On the back, the underside - the side of my life that I see whilst God is busy weaving, it can look somewhat untidy as threads cross or are knotted. There is a vague sense that something is being formed and created but, apart from an occasional area that is recognisable as what it is meant to be, it often seems chaotic, messy, tangled and even unnecessary. But then, when it is turned over, to the Creator's side, the embroiderer, the weaver has made something beautiful and complete; precisely placed; intricate in places but perfectly designed.
In actual large tapestries, only a small portion can be worked on at a time and as each part is completed, the tapestry is wound onto a beam, out of sight so that the weaver can work on the next section. What is already done may not be seen again until the very end, when all is unrolled, revealing a gloriously breath-taking finished piece.
For sure, many parts of life's journey so far are not what I would have chosen for myself. Some are like starting to pick a large stone out of the ground but finding oneself lugging a dirty great boulder out of the way, straining a muscle or two on the path; some bits give a hint of toughness at first but end up feeling like you have unintentionally poked a sewing needle right down behind your fingernail and suffering the ensuing pain of infection and drainings of pus. But there will be punctuations of enjoying the taste of home-grown, lovingly cared-for garden produce or proudly showing off the seemingly effortless beauty of a finished project from your craft space. Such wildly differing textures of life - borne or savoured - ultimately playing their role in making me the person that I am and forming me into the person God sees and delights in, every step of the way. I hope I haven't made the job too difficult for Him on the journey!
