Looking at the world today, my first thought is “wow there are a lot of people who need Jesus.” I was lucky as a little girl to be brought up knowing Jesus as part of my life. I tried to surround myself with the things of God and I put enormous pressure on myself to “always do the right thing.” (I failed miserably at this) While I have been a Christian for a very long time it wasn’t until recently when my life took a crazy turn that I began to realize the Gospel is really all about Jesus and the relationship we have with him. It is not about being perfect. He was God’s perfect gift to us because there is no way we can be perfect enough for God. He stepped in and filled that gap. Everyone has fallen short of God’s requirements. Each day we get up and show up for this thing called life but some days we are a success story and some days we are just simply a hot mess. Jesus is there for us on both days. He is our advocate and friend. I guess looking at this world I should actually realize “Wow – I need Jesus.”

During my recent journey through change, I have had many days where I prayed all day and then days where I could not pray at all. I have had days where I felt Jesus was by my side and days where I felt he was very distant. As I thought about this today, I realized that Jesus has walked by my side my entire life. In my low points and in my high points he has been there. The reminder of this for me is the tattered pages of the bible given to me in 1984 by my grandma. She gave this to me as I graduated from high school. On those pages there are many notes, many highlights and even tear stains. That bible tells me the story of how Jesus has held on to me, guided me, answered my prayers in his time not necessarily my own. There are notes when I made some of the hardest decisions of my life and some of those notes I did not understand until recently. I thought God had forgotten about those things, they were so long ago, but then I realized that some of those prayers I had 30+ years ago are being answered even today. As I look at those worn pages, I was reminded that there is a tapestry to our lives and like a tapestry if you look at it from the wrong side you see a mess and something that doesn’t make sense but if you turn it over there is a beautiful picture.

I am starting to realize when going through something difficult it could be just what God needs you to go through to get you to where he wants you to be. Each event in your life is what it takes to make you into who you need to be for right now in such a time as this. Things that happened years ago, things that happened yesterday, people you met today and people you met years ago are all part of fulfilling God’s plan for you. The key to all of this is trusting is plan and most of all trusting his timing.

Over the years I have had many bibles but not one of those pulls me close and reminds me of God’s plan for my life more than the one with the tattered pages and the notes. It reminds me that decisions I made as early as 1984 impact my life today and God has got this all in his hands. God’s timing is everything and I am sure that just like I didn’t understand fully the impact of decisions I made prior to 1990 would have on my tapestry, the things I am going through now will be clearer down the road as the picture of what God wants for my life continues to develop.

My goal for this week is to trust in his timing!

Have a blessed week and as you read this if you are going thru a rough time enter a comment and let me know I would love to pray for you and be part of the tapestry God is creating for you!!!