Even some of the wise will stumble, resulting in their refinement, purification, and cleansing until the time of the end, for it is still for the appointed time. (Daniel 11:35)
Tambudzai, with her beautiful white smile, was from the Shona tribe. She worked as a housemother at the orphanage in Zimbabwe. Dani gave Tambudzai yarn and discovered she could knit, without a written pattern, like no artist we’ve known. Regardless of fighting children, yammering coworkers, or singing songs, Tambudzai never lost track. If she changed one stitch in the bottom hem, it was the beginning of a pattern that would crisscross other cables to end at the shoulder.
God weaves the details of our lives into his pattern for history. Life may appear random with its disruptions and bad decisions, but, like Tambudzai’s knitting, God’s sovereignty never misses a stitch. Human failings and demonic mutinies become the contrast rows that raise up his beautiful purposes. The garment he is working has a shape and length he held in his mind from before the universe began.
The trouble I will encounter today won’t be a meaningless oversight. It will be a refining stitch dropped on cue so my response can be included in the grand design. My choices will embellish God’s eternal article.
Today’s test is already on its way, I see it coming. Now is the time to set my intentions to bring glory to Jesus. And yet, if I fail, the garment isn’t ruined. For the wise who seek God, he changes mistakes into stitches of learning. Even ugly failure becomes elegant victory. Such is the mastery of history’s Artist.
Prayer: Sovereign Lord, I celebrate your artistry in weaving my life into history.