I’m back cross-stitching again. I put it down for a while and then realised that “if it was to be, it is up to me.” The one that I’m doing is intricate and detailed. It has many different colours and dozens of them are scattered in a sporadic pattern with large gaps in between. It’s certainly work intensive. Initially, I thought it would take me a year, but at the rate I’ve been going, 2 years is more likely. One of the primary reasons why I love cross-stitching is because it has a significant parallel to life.
I begin with a pattern and I colour in the stitches that I’ve made…
On the fabric, all bitty like this, it doesn’t amount to much…
But eventually, if one is diligent and persistent, it all begins to make sense. The perfection of the picture can only be seen once it’s done and all the little stitches fit together to make it work…
And like life, there is what is behind and there is what is to come! The past may have some ups and downs, but it is done. You need to adjust and make the most of what is to come.
Isaiah 43:18-19
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? “
There is a bigger picture in each of our lives. God is weaving the stitches to make it happen. We often don’t understand how it’s all going to turn out, but we do know that the picture will be pretty awesome once it’s done. Our job is to keep on going. Keep on focusing on the good; admiring the beauty of the world; looking to the Creator and not the created; knowing that when we trust in God and follow His pattern for our lives, the picture’s going to turn out far better than we could imagine. Regardless of what comes. God has in His hands the bigger picture. It may seem heart-breaking and wretched now, but in the end it will be something spectacular, because, remember, this life is not the end. The end of our life is only the beginning.
So as I stitch away and get a great deal of pleasure of all the hours I spend doing it, I know that it is only a fleeting life that is passing and that one day, my final thread will be tied off and a grand new life will begin.
Like the odd stitches here and there, today may not seem like much, but make the most of it; do it right; be happy in it, because it will be absolutely meaningful when the picture is complete.
Keep the smile going.
God bless you!
In His Grip,
Helga xx 🙂