I find that God has a dry sense of humor. A wise Father, he knows that we are perhaps best suited to be seen as sheep. Have you ever really dealt with sheep? They are silly creatures, often stubborn, headstrong, and continue to bat into one another long after they have realized the direction they are going in is going to cause an issue. There’s a reason sheep need a shepherd, and it’s not that they love the hook of his staff.
This past week I spent a few days away in a mountain top kind of town. A quiet place, for it was not the tourist season, I thoroughly enjoyed the time away from my world of “often too busy” days. I had thought perhaps to spend quiet contemplation time and perhaps do some writing, you 
know – a productive vacation, and about that time in my get away experience God laughed.
A master weaver understands that there will be many processes to arrive at the loom. Everything from the grass the animals eat to the attention the person combing the hair gives, will affect the ease and the outcome of the weaver. Wool, like, flowers, can come in all different sizes and shapes, and each has it’s own needs to remain in tact. We often think that the bumps in the road are to be smoothed over in life. However I find that the bumps we go through in life have purpose. As the weaver knows, a break in thread is not so much of a tragedy, but an opportunity to tie in a new solution, a new way of weaving or being seen into the creation.
God is the ultimate conservationist. He doesn’t throw the baby out with the bath, well, not after that decision concerning the flood anyway. You see God is a master weaver, he pulls us together, like threads in the loom, bracing us to create something new through the experiences of being with one another. We fight this cohesion in relationships at times, each wanting to be THE thread that stands out, but when you look at the woven piece, it is not well done when the individual threads never come together as a whole. We are called to be a whole body of Christ, to set aside our self-focused needs and to choose more than simply our needs.
The trip unfolded with many miniature scenes and stories. Each chapter echoing the presence of a deeper purpose than to become the storekeep, cafe owner, or person before us. As is often the case, the stories involved dedication to the goal, love past all reason, and the depth of friendships that support success even in hard times. It was not the easy times the stories shared, but the wealth of what hard times had brought to each individual’s life. The stories of the richness of having friends who carry you during illness, the joy of repeated stories of just how despite all God can use even the toughest of times to set up the scenario where only He can be who you need. The stories of following hard a path only to realize that all that was conceived as important meant nothing compared to living your gifts, against all odds.
Weaving. The Book is full of tales of messy lives. My friend loves the Old Testament because at the heart of it are real people living real lives in messy manner. The Shepherd shows up and loves them despite them. We see the flesh of choices in the Old Testament. We see folks trying to take control of lives they do not understand and often choosing to “make God’s words true” by enacting their own protection of His prophecies….remember Sarah’s solution set to her husband’s child? “He shall father many nations…” she cannot believe the Shepherd meant her, so she meddled. It wasn’t a good plan. David couldn’t/wouldn’t believe that God had such a beautiful wife for him….so he meddled ….and the cost was great. Eve, even Eve, given all that Eden had to offer, thought she needed more, she believed that in doing what God warned her not to do,she would find “more”. Time and time again the Shepherd has woven together the stories for us to use as guides to learning. Vivid words, repeated stories, even told from more than one view, and yet we still tend to think that was for some other sheep.
At home now, the days in the mountain seem far away, a place I want to return to not because there was something so very “there” that was not here, but because perhaps there, I was more able to experience focusing on “what is…” ~ that awareness of God’s presence in the lives of those I met. The presence of His leadings as I choose to for a minute moment be more available to his leadings. A broken thread, perhaps I needed this time away to remember in visual form, that God mends the broken and makes us stronger through His presence. Knowing his humor, He arranged not only the lessons, but the visuals knowing that my language is seeing…my hearing better attuned when the landscapes are before me….and so this morning I awake to a home in the suburbs, and remember that the Shepherd is indeed weaving our lives together…and this tapestry we are each involved in is designed by a master weaver….and one who still is not so removed into His creation….that he forgets to tend this sheep….in fact, the weaving relieves us of the burden of carrying the weight of our wool….and releases it into something He can use…
May I always remember that it is my purpose….to release to God whatever it is He can use…and to know that His word never returns void…even if I have to go to a small mountain town to slow down enough to hear His voice.
After all, that’s often what it takes does it not? You have to find your own version of Sweetieland…but this sheep, this silly one, at times needs to go away from the herd, and listen for the Shepherd’s voice.
How about you?
