This past June we were in Scotland on vacation. When we toured Stirling Castle they had a number of beautiful tapestries on the walls. As part of the tour you could go behind the castle to a building where they made the tapestries. An interesting thing, these beautiful tapestries are like us, they don’t look that good from the backside! Yet that is where the work is being done. To create a beautiful tapestry the weaver needs to know the pattern on the front and what thread to weave in where but they are tied off at the back, out of sight when viewing the finished product.
In terms of our calling and purpose the desire of the Master Weaver is to produce a masterpiece by working in hidden places. Look at what the scriptures tell us.
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight– 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister. Colossians 1:21-23 (NKJV)
Paul is clear. The Master Weaver has a desire, to present us to His Father, “holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.” He wants to present a beautiful tapestry. Yet Paul also builds in a qualifier, “if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast.”
Will we all become all that we are called to be? No, I am confident the only one who fully walked out His calling was Jesus. At the same time I believe that when we learn to cooperate with His grace we can accomplish far more than we would have imagined and I think for most of us it is more about being faithful in little things than it is about seeking to accomplish what we view as big or great things. He simply calls us to follow Him and be faithful
I heard a story once about a man who lived a simple quiet life and attended church regularly. Not much was known about him but it was revealed after he died that he had sowed over a million dollars into the mission field. This was decades ago when that amount of money was very significant. Whether the story is accurate I do not know but the principle is clear, quiet and devout faithfulness. What about a scriptural example?
25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. Luke 2:25 (NKJV)
If you read the whole story in Luke 2 we know the Holy Spirit was upon Simeon and drew him to the temple to prophesy over the baby Messiah. There is no indication that the temple leaders or others knew Simeon nor do we read anything about him after this, though scripture implies his death was imminent. So why was he given this privilege? He was “just and devout.” What about Ananias? Do you remember him? His story is in Acts 9 where Jesus sent him to pray for Paul (Saul at that point). How is he referred to in scripture? As ‘a certain disciple (Acts 9:10).’ He was there and available and Jesus wove something into his life. We never hear of him again in scripture.
As we walk with the Master Weaver and He works on us I think the only thing that truly mars the tapestry is deliberate rebellion or refusing to follow His leading. We will stumble and make errors at times but at the end of the day I think the pieces we often see as areas of brokenness and weakness, when we overcome them, will show up as glistening gold in our tapestry.
So, as we walk with Him let’s pray that we will walk wisely and cooperate in becoming the kind of tapestry the Master Weaver wants to create out of our life.
