In Its Time

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO: Picture Praise, 02/11/13

The life of a Hmong woman is full of toil and hardship, but in the midst, there is creativity and beauty. This is mostly shown in their brightly embroidered clothing. A person has to have new clothing for New Years and other special occasions, the mother has to embroider and sew two outfits for each family member each year. This lady was behind on her sewing, so she brought her embroidery project to church with her and worked on it through three hours of Sunday school and church. 

I watched in fascination as she deftly plied her needle, but when I took a closer look I was amazed to realize that she was working from the back side of the piece. She was so skilled and confident in her plan and her sewing ability that she didn’t need to see the front of the work. She just kept working from the back. 

It occurred to me that this parallels our lives. We are a work in progress and at times when our life doesn’t make sense, we want to see the big picture of what God is doing in and through us. But God is the master craftsman, working out his plans and purposes for us. From our perspective we only see the tangled threads of the backside, and it isn’t particularly pretty, but God sees things from an entirely different perspective. What may now seem an unattractive confusing mess, will be a work of beauty when I finally get to see the finished work from the other side. So I rest in the hands of God, the skilled, wise, all-knowing master craftsman who ‘makes all things beautiful in his time’.

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photographer: Grace, creative access country.  “Called to be a missionary, released to marry, a trailing spouse who’s lived in 4 Asian countries, now retired in Asia and serving in member care.  Who would have thought it!  God’s ways are amazing. “