Tapestry

I was thinking about the way God does things, especially things that make no sense to us.

Then He drew my attention to an artist.

Have you ever looked at an artist drawing? Do you sometimes wonder whether anything positive will come out of all that sketching and smattering of colors?

Have you seen stitch pattern makers at their best? Again do you wonder what all those crisscrossing threads are doing?

What about a carver chopping and chipping on a rock or trunk?

That smattering of different paints or lines of different shades and colors make no sense to anyone but the artist. All those confusing strings make no sense. And that chunk of shapeless wood or stone is nothing in your eyes.

But look at the finished product and you will be filled with awe.

Does that have a lesson for our faith?

Yes.

God is at work on us and like the artist will not show us what He is making of our lives because it will make no sense to us.

Like the artist is the only one who knows what he is producing, God is the one who knows the final product that is our lives.

Wanting to understand the product of our training (experiences) is akin to pressuring an artist to share with us the final product before he has produced it. It is simply impossible. There is no way he can make you understand what you cannot see because your mind is unable to conceptualize what his mind is guiding his hands to produce.

That is why this verse is so powerful. And its power is in the fact that it makes no sense to the one who is being commanded.

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. (Psalm 46:10)

God is declaring the truth that He knows what He is about.

Like this verse we like quoting ‘positively’, we have its context completely opposite what we quote it for.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Its context is the reason Judah wanted to kill the prophet.

I am sending you as captives to Babylon and you will be there for seventy years BECAUSE I have good plans for you.

How can a loving God do such a thing to His chosen people? Aren’t those strings too enmeshed to bring out anything of worth? Isn’t the captivity the display of a vengeful divine?

We are questioning the artist when he is starting to draw. We are looking at the tapestry from the underside. We are want to understand a chunk when the carver has just lifted his chisel.

YOU WILL NOT UNDERSTAND.

But you can trust because you have a few other incidences where you have seen his artwork.

You therefore choose trust instead of understanding. That is when he will get the green light to produce a masterpiece because he does not need to be responding to our nagging through his process.

When we realize the kind of God we have believed in, it makes sense to leave everything to Him, even our logic, because we not only know what He is capable of but also the kind of heart He has toward us.

This is what will make us excited about obedience and revelation.

You see, the fact that I acknowledge that I won’t understand yet I am completely confident about God and His intentions toward me will kill the questioning and doubtful spirit in me. I will give Him the green light to continue working on me, not because I understand what He is doing but because I know whatever He is doing is perfect.

That is called anticipation.

I cannot envision what is being produced but I am confident in the artist to look forward to his masterpiece. And with God that masterpiece is me.

Due to that, I will be on His beck and call just to be around His work station to enjoy a mass of nothing being converted into pricey stuff.

I am writing this as a father who has witnessed this in my children as I work on ‘insane’ things to produce useful stuff for them.

Their trust in me makes them very obedient.

Isn’t that what our faith should be producing?

You see, faith is not only believing. It is anticipatory cooperation and obedience in the one we believe in.

As an example, in my walk of faith and especially ministry I have never seen God repeat a miracle. And it is the same when you read the Bible.

What do I mean?

God never repeats Himself or does something the same way twice.

As the Creator He is never short of new ways of doing things.

One reason He never repeats Himself is because the enemy is the best in copying and counterfeiting what He does as he has been doing since his fall. It is therefore important that God stands out in everything He does to distinguish Himself from the devil who deceives by copying what God is doing.

It is not only in miracles that He doesn’t repeat. His orders and instructions follow the same path for the same reason.

Repetition is the preserve of copyists.

And this is where God the artist comes in.

His originality and lack of repetition should raise our anticipation index because we really do not know what He is doing yet are excited to be part of it.

My children know more about tools than their mother for that reason.

They surround me and want to be part of me making things and so are in hand to give me whatever I need because they want to be connected to what I am making. They therefore know different kinds of tools because I will be asking them to pass them over. Their anticipation guides their obedience. Remember this?

And look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shewed thee in the mount. (Exodus 25:40)

That anticipation guides obedience, even creativity.

We do everything we are told because we are longing to see the product of that obedience.

Another positive thing with anticipation is that as I am working on a project and the children are all around, we get to really bond. The project becomes a unifying factor because my children are as excited to see what I am making as I am making it.

Of course as we work on more projects, my children will start becoming like me. As an example my children, even the smallest, understands electrical circuits than most adults due to that. Once my daughter’s class was given a project to make a circuit and the teacher was shocked that my daughter went beyond what the teacher had thought consisted a circuit.

Look at Moses on the mount. Not only does his communion with God grow, he also starts glowing when he leaves that presence.

Our problem with obedience stems from our lack of trust that God is about doing great things for us; things that we have no capacity to envision. We therefore lack the anticipation for what He is working at.

That is the reason we have problems embracing unpleasant and painful experiences. We simply do not trust that there is any way the artist (God) can use them to produce something good. Yet we will applaud an artist who uses trash to make works of art.

Let me summarize.

God is the artist of our lives and faith. We do not know the final outcome of what He is working on in our lives or even the world but are confident that something very good will be the outcome.

We will therefore join Him in great anticipation, doing everything He asks without question because we are excitedly hastening the unveiling of the final product. But we will also be very keen not to assume we know what He wants because we could then easily hand Him a hammer when He has asked for a pair of pliers because it will slow the progress and delay the release of the final product.

Let me give my example.

Many times I get into situations when there are extreme needs around me, not just as a minister but also a person. Probably family or neighbor issues requiring my financial input. Sometimes it is people I minister to in dire straits needing just a little input from me. At that time I am completely flat and getting food for my family is a real struggle. I can’t help even if I wanted. At times that happens after a season where money was really flowing to a project or book.

Many people assume that I am stingy or unconcerned when the truth is I can’t sleep from wondering how I could be of help beyond praying.

I many times need a reminder from God who is my source that that is in His plan.

You see, God is not limited in His provision. But He gives according to His program, not mine.

It is imperative that I relax irrespective of whether I will be called stingy or whatever because I have hidden my name in Him.

That is when I will give Him the free hand to complete what He is working on concerning me.

And He does it, again and again.

How much time do we spend with God just because He is God and not for what we expect from Him?

That time is spent in His word and prayer. That is where we will get precise orders about our part in the enterprise.

And that is why I will never tire giving reading plans for anyone interested in going through the Bible and fabricating Audio Bibles when God provides.

Faith is built by spending time in what God has said, and says. That is when we will be able to accurately see what He is doing and my part in it.