When Life Looks Messy

One summer, my mum decided to teach my sisters and me how to embroider. She thought it was a useful skill we needed in our arsenal, and it was something to remove any boredom we supposedly thought we had.

So, embroidery classes started at home during the hot summer. My mom bought white pillowcases, thread, and a pattern. The pattern showed us what we were trying to achieve, the thread was the right weight and color for the pattern, and the pillowcases were a blank canvas.

She then explained how each stitch produced a certain pattern;  satin, knot, and chain stitch are some that I remember. But there were many more. The thing with each of these stitches is that they produced a beautiful pattern on the right side of the pillow, but the underside was not so appealing. The underside is where you could correct mistakes without starting over. It's where you secured a thread so it wouldn't unravel. There was no rhyme or reason to the underside. But the pattern on the top came together beautifully.

Back then, I didn't know that this practical application could apply to my life. How many things seemed to be going wrong, how things could be corrected, how there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to my life, but what was being created was following a beautiful pattern designed by my Creator.

I think sometimes I forgot that there is a Master Designer behind my life. When the thread seems too tight on the underside, we don't remember that we are being formed into something beautiful.

I'm glad my mom took the time that summer to teach us how to embroider. It has served me well throughout my life while providing a visual reminder of how God works in each of us.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)

Where have you seen God's design in hindsight, even when it felt like chaos in the moment?

-Nylse

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