“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
The excitement of moving into our new home frayed into reality as I walked through the crooked lanes between the ancient stone cottages of our little village. I suddenly felt very alone, hundreds of miles from friends and family. My husband’s ministry had brought us to Scotland where there weren’t any jobs for me, so I worked long hours as a freelance writer.
I wandered up and down the handful of gray, cobbled streets in the damp gray evening. The memorial monument was gray, the birds were gray, the sky was gray, and even my heart felt gray. How would I ever make friends in this tightly knit village where the same families had lived for generations? A shower of rain added grayness to grayness, and I sheltered in the local community center. The hallway was warm and bright. On the bulletin board were signs about the local toddler group, slimming clubs, cars for sale, and Lyme disease. And in the middle of this haphazard mosaic of village life was a small poster advertising “The Muchty Quilters.”
Quilters in Auchtermuchty? In this tiny speck of a village? I’d lived in cities where there wasn’t one quilting club, and here was a group five minute’s walk from my door!
The shower stopped and the evening sun sparkled on the wet-stone world as I wandered back to our home, warmly comforted. Quilting was the only hobby I had brought with me to Scotland. I wasn't particularly good at it, but I’d been interested in patchwork since I was a child.
God knew that one day I’d find myself all alone in a strange place. He knew I would need the warmth of shared friendship around the joy of a common interest. He know I would need the creative and caring women who would share their quilting tips, pieces of fabric, local information, and the stories of their lives. I thought it was just an unimportant hobby, but God had been “piecing” quilting into my life all along, knowing that one day it would bring me color, warmth, comfort, and friendship in a lonely, gray place.
How is God piecing your life together? What are the shapes, patterns, and colors that He has placed into your life that help you to feel treasured by Him? And what about the pieces that don’t seem to fit yet, or that seem unimportant? I wonder how He will use them to bless you.
Blessed - Copyright © 2012 by the General Conference Women’s Ministries Department