I am working on my first cross stitch. I thought it would be a nice, calming thing to do while listening to music or watching TV. I was wrong. It's super stressful. The stitches are simple, but with my 50+-year-old eyes, the tiny stitches, the counting and making sure I'm stitching in the right place have not been calming in the slightest. The directions said to start in the middle and work your way out. So after determining the middle, I began to stitch. The first thread color is called pale gray, but it is actually white. So to make an already stressful craft project more stressful, I'm making half-cross stitches with white thread on white canvas. I have gotten frustrated a few times, pulled out stitches, recounted and pulled out my ocular to get a closer look. When you are right on top of this design, it is hard to believe these tiny "pale gray" stitches will make any difference in this project. But I will do this. I will get this done.
The story behind this cross stitch kit is important. My husband and I have been dealing with quite a bit since the beginning of the year. Recently we believed things were making an upward turn, only to have something else come along to beat the joy out of it. We felt our hearts sink and the darkness creeping back in. It was right at this time that we were leaving for our annual vacation to St. George Island. Each year, we are invited by dear friends to join them at a beach house on the Florida panhandle barrier island for a week in the spring. It is one of our favorite places of respite. You don't go there for the shopping, mini golf or night life. You go there for the beach and wildlife. It is a breathtaking place where we are rejuvenated and refilled spiritually. It has a beautiful white lighthouse, gorgeous beach, lots of seashells, gulls, pelicans, dolphins, sea turtles, herons, beautiful dunes, sweet breezes and a vast blue gulf. We love it there. But we were heading into it beaten and struck down emotionally. While sharing some of our story of the last few months with our hosts and guests, my friend Joanna said, "You need to read Isaiah 43." I have read the Bible through many times, and I am always so surprised when God takes what I have read before and brings new life and meaning to the Word. So I read it and was blown away, acknowledging its timeliness.
"When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you." Isaiah 43:2
"Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." Isaiah 43:18-19
Later that day, we were introducing our friends to The Chosen, a fabulous series on the disciples and Jesus' relationship with them, His ministry and the part each disciple's story plays. We showed the first episode to them that night. At the beginning of the episode, a character begins to recite Scripture. Joanna looks at me and says, "Isaiah 43." I have watched these episodes five times now, but never recognized the Scripture prior to Joanna pointing it out to me. It grabbed my heart. "Thus says the Lord who created you ... I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." Isaiah 43:1 I knew it was no coincidence and went back to reread Isaiah 43 again.
But I had no idea it would be so trying. Peaceful Shores? Something I'd hoped would bring me peace has only added to the stress. I stare at those tiny stitches and for the life of me cannot see the big picture.
It was then I realized how the cross stitch, and not just the verse, was so poignant to our lives right now. Those stitches are part of a beautiful, finished, complicated product. And while I cannot see it now, once combined with all the other stitches and colors, it will be a lovely, handmade, captured moment where God made Himself so clear to us. "Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"
We have had a hard time perceiving it. But behold, He is doing a new thing. And I am excited to be a part of that new thing. I am going to finish this cross stitch. I may end up with a few new gray hairs (as pale as those threads) after this, but like this trying season of our lives, the new thing will be worth it.
In Isaiah 43:21 the Lord reminds the Israelites that He is providing for His chosen people, "the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise." God hasn't chosen us for our success and joy. He's chosen us so that we may declare His praise! Whether the world has dealt us a bad deck at this time or not, we are to praise His name, declare the great things He has done and keep worshiping on. And we are. This season, while I can't see the value of it completely now, is part of the big picture. God has a perfect plan. How blessed we are to be a part of it.
Ironically, I don't think my cross stitch will emulate the "perfect" plan. I'm already off by at least one stitch and hoping that doesn't make a huge difference in the end result. But I've been off by a few stitches quite a few times in my life, and God's made beauty from it. I can only hope for the same with Peaceful Shores.
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