Just Like Stitches...

My embroidery project has been laid aside after I finished the little flowers, stems and leaves I was working on...  All that remains to be done now is to add the rest of the embellishments and sew it up – I do promise to share photographs very soon!

Thus, with embroidery on the hold for the time being, I have turned to cross-stitch as a means of brightening up an otherwise dreary afternoon or evening…

 

 The cross-stitch kit currently lying in my work basket is one of a teddy bear seated on a desk with 'My Room' stitched at the top – I have a feeling this will make a beautiful Christmas gift for a certain sister who just loves teddy bears...

But, being a crafter with far too many projects on the go (can you relate?), I very seldom find a moment to add a few more stitches to this little piece of work – it takes me sometimes months to complete a simple picture and often I find myself pulling out more stitches than I've put in.

  

It can be disheartening to behold an unfinished picture, knowing that there are still many, many hours of love to be poured into it yet...

I catch myself wondering why I insist on undertaking such a project...

But despite all the patience and commitment it requires, it gives me a deep sense of satisfaction to see the stitches gradually coming together to form a beautiful picture...

The various colours and stitches used in a cross-stitch chart creates an eye-catching masterpiece, but it is only at the very end we see the result of our many hours of work.

 And isn't it just the same with our earthly lives? 

Today, I face battles that leave me weak and weary and feeling like I am unable to take another step...

Each 'stitch' in my life picture is sometimes painful, and I feel despondent to see how odd and incomplete it looks...

Will it ever be beautiful?

Will I ever be complete?

But Philippians 1:6 says…

“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

I can rest assured that whatever battles I may be required to face or whatever characteristics I lack and still have to attain, will take me the rest of my days on earth to learn!

 

My life - and each of your lives, is just like the cross-stitch project in my work basket.  They are incomplete and imperfect, but one day they will be beautiful...

Jesus loves us even when we feel like our lives are failures and our efforts to be more like Him are futile.

He knows how we try and fail and how difficult it is to remain joyful under testing fire.  And He isn't finished with us yet – He will continue His work in us until we are beautiful and our lives are complete!

And it is a great comfort to know that, unlike me and my poor dear cross-stitch projects, Jesus isn't going to leave our lives lying in His 'work basket' until He feels like helping us out - He is working in us every moment of every day!

May I encourage you (just as I have to encourage myself) to hold onto Jesus – His work in you is not done yet...

There are still many, many stitches that need to be added to our lives to make them the beautiful and lovely pictures they will one day be...

...And He is stitching all the time.

“We could never learn to be brave and

patient if there were only joy in this world.”

~ Helen Keller

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~ Blessings ~