What's the point?...

Needlepoint...a very foreign skill to me but something about this craft inspires me. Have you ever seen the back of one of these artistic endeavors? It looks like a circus of crazy chaos with contrasting colored strings tangled, woven, heaped upon another. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to any of it visually....that is until of course you flip it over and suddenly a very precise picture with intentional detail is revealed. Isn't this. like our lives? How many times do we look at our lives journey and like the back of a needlepoint picture nothing seems to add up to anything but a collection of loose ends, great intentions, and endless guesswork as to what exactly it will all amount to in the end.

Jeremiah 29:11 states "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Despite the times we are all in, the pressures of this life, and the meaningless of everything the wicked world offers...God offers purpose and unending hope. He takes all of our experiences even our darkest times, our pain, our sin and like a dark thread woven into the tapestry of our lives can transform our once spiritually dead hearts with the colorful threads of healing, redemption, purpose, direction, forgiveness, love, eternal life and so so much more. We don't always see the point...the purpose in the struggle..the mystery in the journey, the reward for persevering, how God will deliver us from the seemingly impossible, the great work God is doing amidst the storm & chaos but He knows. He has a plan. He is working to perfect in us His character after all we were made in His image.

My friend God is at work in us to do great things! The caveat is we still have a free will to weave into the tapestry of our lives more threads of sin or to surrender to God's plan for Him to make of each of our lives a distinctly beautiful masterpiece for His glory. We are all a work in progress are we not? He alone can make beauty from the ashes, let Him redeem your life from the pit, let Him make your enemies a footstool for your feet, let Him give you wings like eagles, let Him let you walk and not grow weary, let Him use you to draw all men to Himself. Those of us who belong to Christ are not to be people of fear. Look forward with the courage of a lion for we know who holds the future. Don't get stuck looking back on the pain of the past but remember His past faithfulness. Don't trust in what you can see now with your natural eyes but be determined to see through the eyes of faith expecting God to do immeasurably more. Some day we will be able to flip over the canvas of our lives so to speak and see the Great I Am's perfected work in our lives but until then "we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Rom. 8:28)