Are you familiar with Crewel? This type of embroidery has used the same sewing techniques for at least a thousand years.1 First, the perfect picture is designed and drawn on cloth. Then with the sewing of a single thread, the picture begins. As different stitches and colored threads are introduced, the picture develops on the cloth.
Inevitably, mistakes are made along the way. Some mistakes can be corrected. Others may make the original design unrecognizable. But often an embroiderer’s mistakes can be woven into something that makes their embroidery picture unique and special.
Isn’t our life like crewel? God has designed His perfect plan for our life like the perfect picture designed for crewel. Let’s look at His plan for Esther, (Esther chapters 1 – 10).
FROM ORPHAN TO QUEEN
Looking at the picture of Esther’s life, who would have guessed the Lord designed a plan for this orphan girl to become queen and save the Jews? As we follow the threads, we can see how each thread in her life took her closer to that destination.
When Esther’s parents died, her thread was woven into her cousin Mordecai’s life in the providence of King Ahasuerus. It came to pass that King Ahasuerus was searching for a new queen. Esther just so happened to be the right age, at the right time, at the right place to be selected as a candidate for queen. It seems like the Lord was doing a lot of embroidery, doesn’t it? Over all the other candidates, who was selected as queen? Esther was!
However, the Lord was not done sewing yet.
Esther’s thread intersects with the black thread of Haman’s evil heart. As an official in the King’s court, Haman instigates a plot to destroy the Jews. Looking to cut off Haman’s black thread, Esther fasts, prays and carries out the Lord’s plan saving Esther, Mordecai and the Jews from destruction. Around this time each year, Jews commemorate this event in a celebration called Purim.
WHAT’S THE PLAN?
We may not know the plan for our lives, but the Lord does. As he did for Esther, even before our birth, (Psalm 139:16), He designed His perfect plan for each of our lives.
“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,”
Jeremiah 29:11
As a single thread begins the picture on the cloth, our birth begins the picture of our life. Like different colors and stitches in crewel further form the picture, so do different experiences and relationships weave together forming our lives.
WHO HAS THE NEEDLE?
We may want to control the needle sewing our thread in life, but the Lord is better at embroidery. When we allow Him to guide our life’s thread, we will see things blend together. Careers, relationships and all aspects of our lives will be like complementary colored threads intersecting and running parallel to create a beautiful pattern.
It doesn’t mean life will always be easy. The Lord never promised us that, (John 16:33). But with Him in charge, we can see threads of His joy, peace and love running throughout the design. We may not know the complete picture our lives will make, but the Lord does. He knows where each and every thread in our life will take us.
KNOTS & TANGLES & REPAIRS!
Along the way we may make mistakes altering the picture of the Lord’s plan for us just like mistakes change the picture in crewel work. Sometimes we create knots keeping us stuck in the same place for a while. Perhaps our threads tangle with someone else’s thread veering us off the pattern. Our decisions may use threads that clash with the Lord’s plan.
Whatever our mistakes, they are never beyond the Lord’s loving desire to repair the picture.
Who desires all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth,
1 Timothy 2:4
They are never too great for His forgiveness, (1 John 1:9), compassion and mercy.
Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not,
Lamentations 3:22
If our thread sews outside His plan, He can still lovingly guide it back into place. Viewing the picture that has been created, we will see that even our mistakes can ultimately be used for good and make us unique and special.
And we know that all things work together for good
to those who love God,
to those who are the called according to His purpose,
Romans 8:28
It takes faith to hand over the needle to the Lord. However, we can trust that our loving Lord knows the right color to sew into the right place at the right time to create the beautiful plan He has for our lives. Just like He did for Esther, He will do for us.
YOU WERE DESIGNED FOR A SPECIAL PLAN
BY THE LORD
WHO LOVES YOU.
REFLECTION
Who is sewing the picture of your life?
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, as I personalize Jeremiah 29:11 saying it aloud, I give You the thread of my life to weave into the picture you have designed for me.
The Lord, knows the plans He has for (insert your name). Plans to prosper (insert your name) and not to harm, plans to give (insert your name) a hope and a future.
Open my eyes to Your opportunities for me and guide me to fulfill Your design for my life. In Jesus name. Amen.
BY FAITH, LET THE LORD SEW HIS PLAN
May your day be filled with love and laughter!
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For information on making Jesus Christ your Savior, email me or visit, http://www.peacewithgod.net/
1 Wikipedia
Photo crewel, Aliona Zueva
Photo baby, babymim
Needle, printeboek
Threads, Karly Santiago
