Threads

Reading: Numbers 13-16

I have some really great memories of my grandmother, or ‘Granny’ as we called her. She was a preschool teacher, so she always had really fun games for us to play. She even made Barbie doll clothes for my sister and me. And she really loved to embroider things. As a little girl, I remember her always having a needle in hand working on something. Sometimes, I would take out her embroider rings to get a better look at her handiwork. Looking at the top, it was so pretty-a bird, a forest scene, or a Bible verse. However, when I looked at the bottom, there were small knots where the thread had to be tied and there were loops and strings hanging from the back of the canvas that didn’t appear so beautiful. But the canvas wasn’t made to view from the bottom, it was made to be viewed from the top. 

When God’s needle stitches a pattern in our lives, we look up and can only see the bottom of what He is doing. But when He looks down, He sees a display of beauty in our lives. Sometimes, we can only see the threads from the bottom of God’s design, but child of God, remember that when we see threads, He sees a Master design. Isn’t it easy to get our eyes on the wrong things? The world and our flesh would have us focus on those things that would keep us physically depressed and spiritually discouraged. Each situation that we face can be viewed in one of two ways-we can choose to see God at work or we can choose to stare at a situation that is too overwhelming for us to handle. 

Just for today, keep a positive outlook. All twelve spies saw the same land, but two chose to see God’s strength while the others chose to focus on their weakness.