Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. -James 1:12 (NIV)

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. -Ephesians 2:10 (NKJV)

The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands. -Psalm 138:8 (ESV)

I don’t know about you, but I can often quickly lose my longer view of things when the wind howls and the waves crash. I then become very shortsighted, and can quickly become overwhelmed.

God didn’t design us to live this way. He wants us to trust and depend on Him and His plans for our life. And part of our job is to believe that this rough patch is part of His larger design.

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who helped many Jews escape Nazi persecution during World War II. (I’ll write more about her amazing life in another post!) When talking to people about their purpose in life, she would show a cloth with a messy jumble of colored threads, that seemed to have no order or logic to their arrangement. She would then read this Grant Colfax Tullar poem:

Life is But a Weaving

My life is but a weaving
Between my God and me.
I cannot choose the colors
He weaveth steadily.
Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;
And I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper
And I the underside.
Not ‘til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas
And reveal the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
In the weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned
He knows, He loves, He cares;
Nothing this truth can dim.
He gives the very best to those
Who leave the choice to Him.

And then she would turn the cloth over, which revealed what the weaving really was: A beautiful crown.

She would say: “Although the threads of my life have often seemed knotted, I know, by faith, that on the other side of the embroidery there is a crown.”

Hang in there. The trials of your life are just part of a beautiful masterwork you will see in hindsight.