With Exceeding Joy

If you follow this blog regularly and read all the comments, then today's entry will not be entirely new to you. I want to follow up on what Rebecca was saying last week because it's been a theme in my life recently, and I'm guessing several of you can relate.

Rebecca's remarks about the quilt and finding beauty in apparent randomness reminded me of the times that Pastor Euler has talked about our lives being like tapestries. From the back--which is what we see most days--it looks all messy and disorganized, with thread hanging off and lines going every which way. If we walk around to the front of a tapestry, however, we see a beautiful design. We realize that it's just two sides of the same thing. Occasionally, God allows us to see the big picture of life, and we realize that his plan for us is really a lovely thing, with order and design.

His order shows up in all kinds of places. Today I was opening the blinds in my dining room when a spot of yellow caught my eye. My crocuses are blooming! Down in the corner of the yard next to some rocks Larry hauled down there in a wheelbarrow years ago three little blossoms shone like a bit of sunshine.

After we ate dinner, Larry and I took a walk, and I stopped to admire the crocuses up close. I saw buds of three more that will be blooming within the week. Brushing away dried grass and old leaves, I spotted the green tips of hyacinths poking through the ground. Some of the daffodil leaves are already three or four inches tall. I love knowing that all the beauty of spring is there--down underground where we can't see it yet. Little by little, it will rise up and show itself in pink, yellow, and purple splendor.

There are days when I worry and fret about what the future holds. Sometimes the sorrow of every day seems too much. Other days, God's goodness and mercy are abundantly evident. In the midst of it all, I know He has a plan. I Peter 4:12 & 13 remind us of a future hope: "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy."

Like patterns in a quilt, threads in a tapestry, and bits of green and yellow bursting through the cold, brown earth, our lives are evidence of a designer, a planner, who is creating in us and through us a life of beauty and glory. Be glad.