Sometimes this life doesn’t make any sense. We all go through times of pain and loss and wonder why. We question God, we get angry, we cry, we shake our fists, we turn our back. “Why?” we cry out. We ask God how he can allow things to happen that hurt so much. Then other times we wonder how we got so lucky- what we ever did to deserve some of the blessings in our life. Occasionally we see that one thing is a direct result of the other; sometimes something painful had to happen before something good happened. Sometimes our questions are answered, sometimes they’re not. But every once in a while, God shows us just enough that our faith is suddenly increased and we see his sovereign hand and if at least for a moment, it makes sense.
“We look at life from the back side of the tapestry. And most of the time, what we see is loose threads, tangled knots and the like. But occasionally, God’s light shines through the tapestry, and we get a glimpse of the larger design with God weaving together the darks and lights of existence.” -John Piper
I think one of the things we must all look forward to the most about heaven is seeing what the front of our life’s tapestry looks like. I can picture a giant art gallery and walking in where only the backside is visible to each of us and then God coming along beside us and gently guiding us to the other side and suddenly a magnificent work of art is revealed. The colors, the light and the shadow, the texture, the contour all seem to leap off the fabric. We have to step back to take it all in, to admire its beauty. We are overcome by the talent of the Creator of such a masterpiece. We suddenly understand that he had a vision for our life from the beginning and knowing how it would all come together, he patiently wove each thread. We see where he carefully selected each color, each type of thread as he allowed the picture of our lives to take shape. He toiled for years, never slumbering as he pressed on. He knew exactly how long it would take before it all came together as he had always known it would. The moment it was finished, he put his hands down and looked at our lives with satisfaction and had been waiting for this moment to show us his work of love in its entirety.
He gazes at us with kind eyes as the smile starts to draw up the corner of our mouths and tears stream down our face. We see it then- how much he loves us. The sacrifice he made for us. How he pulled and tugged and adjusted the threads until they looked just right. He knew how much pressure to exert to accomplish his goal without breaking us. We remember the times when we asked him to stop, to end it, to just take us out of our life when we were in a dark place. He shows us those dark threads, the shadow of that place. But then we see the emerging color that gradually came from that shadow and we see that the scene that unfolded was a focal point of the entire picture of our life. We see how the bright color wouldn’t have made sense without the dark shadow. The pattern repeats throughout the tapestry and the dynamic portrait of our life is more vibrant and more beautiful than anything we have ever seen.
We look around and our breath catches once a again as we see countless other tapestries, each one gorgeous in the their own right and each completely unique. We feel the fullness of his love for us then, each one of us. We see how he was present in every day of our lives as we reflect on each moment. Even when we couldn’t see our picture, he always did. This is what we have been waiting for- this revealing. And now we bow our heads in understanding and gratitude as our Father wraps us in his arms. The pain and the struggle is finally over. Eternity awaits.
♥
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