even a princess tapestry needs dark threads.

A few months ago, 10 year old PinkGirl and a friend were talking about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

PinkGirl: “Mom, why does God make bad things happen?”

(Lord, I’m gonna need your help with this one.)

Me: “I don’t necessarily believe God makes bad things happen. I believe God allows bad things to happen. Sometimes we get to know why, sometimes we don’t. You remember the Bible verse about now I see in a mirror, dimly, then I shall see face to face?”

PinkGirl: “uh huh.”

Me: “It means that we don’t always see things clearly or understand why things happen while we are here in this life, but when we get to heaven, we will understand.

I looked up at a tapestry of Disney princesses hanging on her wall. (thank you Lord)

Me: “You see that tapestry? How beautiful it is? That’s because we can see all of it – from the front. This is like what God sees when he looks at the earth.

But look at this.”

I turned the corner of the tapestry and blocked out a small piece in my hand.

Me: “This is what we see. Just this little bit. We can’t see all of the tapestry because each part of our life is just a thread. We’re so small, and our vision is so limited, that all we can see are our own threads and the threads near us. Sometimes, it’s not very pretty. What does this look like to you?”

PinkGirl: “I dunno, it’s too small, it just looks like little blobs.”

Me: “It doesn’t look like little blobs to God. His vision is unlimited, so he can see the whole thing at the same time. And, since he’s the one who’s weaving the design, he knows exactly where each thread is supposed to go. Even if we could see the whole thing, it would still look like a mess.”

I pulled the tapestry back as far as it would go.

Me: “Can you tell what it is now?”

Both PinkGirl and her friend: “no.”

Me: “And see how there are all different colors here? Some are bright colors, some are dark. I think of the dark colors as being the trials in our life. We all want our life to be wonderful – to be light colored threads. But what would the front of this tapestry look like if all the threads were light colored? Would it be as beautiful?”

I turned the tapestry back over, showing the front side again.

PinkGirl: “It’s a flower!”

Me: “Yep. God knew it would be. His job is to weave the tapestry. Our job is to trust that he knows what he’s doing and that in the end, it will be beautiful.”

Thank you Lord, for helping Herb Lockyer write a book (Dark Threads the Weaver Needs) in the middle of his grief and for leading me to read it a few years ago.

“My Life is but a weaving between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors, He worketh steadily.

Ofttimes He weaveth sorrow and I in foolish pride,
forget that He seeth the upper, and I the underside.

Not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly,
shall God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful in the Weaver’s skillful hand,
as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.”
Author Unknown