The Quilt
The Quilt
As I faced my Maker at the last Judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with the other souls.
Before each of us laid our lives, like the squares of a quilt, in many piles.
An angel sat before each of us setting quilt squares together into tapestries that represented our lives.
But as my angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares was. They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been
difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life.
I saw hardships that I had endured, which were the largest holes of all.
I glanced around me. No one else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there
the other tapestries were filled with rich color and bright hues of worldly fortune.
I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened.
My angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty.
Finally, the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light….the scrutiny of truth.
The others arose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lived had been!
My angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to arise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame.
I hadn’t had all the earthly fortunes. I had had love in my life, and laughter.
new it.
I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow
muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I had spent many nights on my knees in prayer,
asking for help and guidance in my life.
I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully
each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that I would not melt within my
skin beneath the critical gaze of those who unfairly judged me.
And now, I had to face the truth.
My life was that it was, and I had to accept it for what it had been.
I arose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light.
An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with eyes wide.
Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image.
The Face of Christ.
Our Lord then stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes.
He said, “Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life,
My hardships, and My struggles
Each point of light in your life is when you stepped side and let Me shine through
until there was more of Me than there was of you."
May all our quilts be threadbare and worn,
allowing Christ to shine through.
(Author Unknown)
Father, my life is in tangle,
Thread after thread appears
Twisted and broken and knotted,
Viewed through the lapse of years.
I cannot straighten them, Father;
Oh, it is very hard;
Somehow or other it seemeth,
All I have done is marred.
I did not see they were getting
Into this tangled state;
How it has happened I know not—
Is it too late, too late?
Is it? “Ah, no!” Thou dost whisper,
“Out of this life of thine
Yet may come wonderful beauty
Wrought by My Power Divine.”
Take then, the threads, O my Father,
Let them Thy mind fulfill,
Work out in Love a pattern
After Thy holy will!
~Charlotte Murray
“O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake for me.”
(Isaiah 38:14)
“...To give unto them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they might be called tress of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.”
(Isaiah 61:3)
The thread has been broken
Alas, we do cry!
Nor can it be mended
Thus we are offended
Our minds are too small
We see only the thread
But GOD sees it all
The pattern is stead
Our hearts have been broken
Again, we must cry
Our work is demolished
And now we shall die
Our hearts are too small
AND feel only hurt
Our GOD sees it all
The infinite work
So never give it up
Never say die
GOD holds the threads
With them He doth ply
If only you His bidding will do
A beautiful pattern
He will make out of you.
(Copied)
The Pattern of Life
If the pattern of life
Looks dark to you
And the threads seem
Twisted and queer,
To the One who is planning
The whole design,
It’s perfectly plain
And clear—
For it’s all a part of
God’s loving plan,
When He works in
His threads of gray,
And they’ll only make brighter
The rose and gold
Of another happier day.
A Christian man’s life is lain in the loom of time,
to a pattern which he does not see,
but God does; and his heart is in the shuttle.
On one side of the loom is sorrow,
and on the other is joy;
and the shuttle, struck alternately by each,
flies back and forth carrying the thread,
which is white or black as the pattern needs;
and in the end, when God shall lift up the finished garment,
and all its changing hues shall glance out
it will then appear that the dark and deep colors
were as needful to beauty as the bright and high one.”
--Henry Ward Beecher
“And when God, who sees all and wishes to save us
upsets our designs, we stupidly complain against Him,
we accuse His providence.
We do not comprehend that in punishing us,
in overturning our plans and causing us suffering,
He is doing all this to deliver us,
To open the Infinite to us.”
--Victor Hugo
