A Prayer

My little sewing project has turned into prayer.

I’d forgotten how much creating something physical takes a number of tries.  There is so much putting together, and taking apart in the process.  First, I try it, examine it, make a decision, try it again and decide again.  There is no stopping in this process until I have found exactly what I wanted in the first place.

It makes me wonder how much of God’s creating is a process of trying and trying again until something comes out like God wants it.  And, I ask myself:  am I willing to be shaped and re-shaped, cut and torn, and sewn back together again, until I turn out just the way God wants me?

It’s really a cooperative effort, and grace is the result.  Yet, we have to be willing to give ourselves over to the continual process.  Is that pulling and tugging that I feel when things don’t go according to my plan, God’s way of speaking to me?  Am I being asked to take a new position or change my opinion?  Reach out to someone I would rather not, or slow down and notice all of life unfolding?

So, my little sewing project has become a prayer.  As I rip and tear, re-position and sew again, iron, steam, and fold, I am thinking of all the people I know who are experiencing struggles of any kind in their lives.   I think of a family member in the hospital; two friends – one who is dying and the other who is caring for her, day by day; a friend who is still looking for a job; another who’s business has fallen on hard times; another who recently lost both her father and her husband within days of each other.  There are so many difficulties and struggles that we face and have to deal with.

As I rip and cut, measure, pin, and try again, I hold each of them in prayer.  I pray we each can see our times of struggle as opportunities to try again, to cut something out, to re-position, re-measure, and try again.  Perhaps these struggles are simply God’s invitation for us to reposition the fabric of our lives and try again until we come out just the way God wants.

 

 

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