Daily Encouragement For June 27:

The Beautiful Design

When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would
sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She
informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a 
mess from where I was sitting, which was the underside. I watched her work
within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand.

She would smile at me, look down and gently say, "My son, you just go about 
your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I 
will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side."

I would ask her why she was using some dark threads along with the light 
ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes would pass
and then I would hear Mother's voice say, "Son, come and sit on my knee."

This I did, only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful picture. I could not
believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy.

Then Mother would say to me, "My son, from underneath it does look messy 
and jumbled, but you did not see that there was a beautiful pattern forming on
the top, it was a design that I was following. Now that you can see it from my
side you can see the beautiful design on top."

Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and 
said, "God, what are You doing?" He has answered, "I am embroidering 
your life." I say, "But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled.
The threads seem so dark. Why can't they all be bright?" God soon replies,
"My child, you just go about your business of doing My business, and one day
I will bring you to Heaven, put you on My knee and you will see the beautiful
design from My side."

We do not always see the big picture for our lives and so we need to keep
in mind that God is in control and He will use every good and bad thing in
our life to make us stronger and in turn more useful to do His work. Even though
we face problems in life, there is a beautiful pattern performing and one day we
we be able to see the beautiful design on top.

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings
which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind
of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose.” - Romans 8:16,26-28.