A
Stitcher’s Legacy
The sound of thread sliding through cloth
soothes me as the piece starts to come together. Each little x, each little
backstitch, helps the picture become clearer. If you have ever hand embroidered
anything, you know what it is like, watching how each seemingly minuscule stitch plays a part in revealing the mystery of how marks on a paper could
result in something so beautiful. Like most people that stitch, I hope my work
lasts far longer than I do. I hope that some pieces will always remain in the
family and will be passed down with each new generation. I dream of future tiny
fingers tracing the stitches and asking about the one that made it. I think
that is why so many antique samplers echo the phrase “Remember me...” with some
sort of clever caption. Every single person wants to be remembered for the work
that they accomplished on this Earth. And, whether you believe me or not, you
will leave behind a legacy of your own. It may just be for a close few, or it
could have such an impact that you will be remembered for many generations to
come. Regardless, you are creating your legacy right now. Like the creators of
the “Remember Me” samplers, we should all strive to leave behind a good and
lasting legacy.
Only recently has it been pointed out to me
that God has His own legacy that He has left for us. Trouble is, we often can’t
see the whole picture, the completed sampler, if you will. Occasionally, God
allows a glimpse of some past and present stitches our actions have created.
Sometimes, we followed God’s pattern for our life, and the resulting work is
beautiful. Other times, we decided to do our own thing, and the work is marred
with mistakes. Yet, God still sees beauty in those mistakes- His beloved child
was trying after all. And the times His child wasn’t trying still resulted in a
valuable lesson, one that hopefully drew me and you closer to Him.
I feel that most of the time we only catch
glimpses of the back of the work. The back of a sampler is where threads seem
to be randomly placed, with odd criss-crossing, and where tangles, knots, and
loose threads are hidden from view. Occasionally, we see some organization,
some sort of plan, manifesting itself on the back, that rarely, if ever, makes
some speck of sense to us. If we could just see the front of the completed work,
it would all make sense, we think to ourselves. We cry out for God to show us
the front of the sampler-in-progress of our life as we struggle along. We rant
and rave that something isn’t fair or right and demand an explanation. We don’t
see how the odd stitches, the painful parts, often result in the most beautiful
area of finished work. Instead of giving in to our demands, God just keeps
patiently stitching, knowing that someday, either we will understand or we will
no longer care. We don’t see that the needle pricked His finger too when we
were hurting. We don’t see how our anger or frustration resulted in a missed
stitch or stubborn knot. Sometimes, we do see the error, and the knot untangles
itself. Other times, it just gets tucked away on the back and the stitching,
the legacy-building, continues.
When we yield to God’s pattern, and choose to
trust and obey Him, that is when the sampler of our life ultimately has a
beautiful finish, whether we ever see it or not. I’m a bit of an odd duck though.
When I look at the samplers of yesteryear, I see beauty in the mistakes. You
see, mistakes and trial and error are both great teachers. And sometimes what
we see as a mistake is actually a planned for stitch in God’s pattern. We just
don’t always get to see how it plays a role in the finished work. Honestly, I
don’t think it would make much sense to us to see our life’s sampler, or even
our future legacy, when we demand to. Because too much wouldn’t make sense to
us. It only will when God shows us the finished series of samplers and how they
are all interconnected. Some connections make sense- others we didn’t even
realize would have a reason to exist. So, instead of focusing on the needle
prick, we should instead be focused on the Designer. He has a plan for each us.
Not only does following His plan, His pattern, result in ultimate good for us,
it also helps us leave behind an extraordinary legacy that glorifies Him and points
others to Him for decades after we are gone. The legacy-building time does the
same. And when God does give you a glimpse of the work in progress, treasure
it. Trust that the parts that don’t make sense now will make sense in the future.
He is the best designer that ever has and ever will exist. So tell me, what
kind of heirloom sampler (legacy) is being stitched right now in your life?
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