by Lori Heagney, MS, LPC
One of our family traditions is to attend the NC Mountain State Fair every fall. My kids love to enter in the various competitions and have done quite well over the years. Despite their enthusiasm to find out their winnings, they always stop at the first booth upon entering the room to practice weaving on the fiber looms.
While watching and waiting on one such occasion, the Lord reminded me that He desires a relationship that is as tight and dependent on Him as one thread is on the other in a tapestry. This lead me to do some research on the weaving process.
In the weaving operation there are two fibers; one is called the warp and the other is referred to as the weft. According to Wikipedia, “The warp is the set of yarns or other elements stretched in place on a loom before the weft is introduced during the weaving process. The warp must be strong to be held under high tension during the weaving process, unlike the weft which carries almost no tension (Wikipedia.org)“.
It occurred to me that without the strength that comes from the “warp,” the “weft” would fall apart. I have found this is also true in our relationship with God. When we are in constant communication regarding our decisions and direction just as the threads are connected with each other at each crossfiber, then we are held together by His strength and the end result is a beautiful symphony of color and creativity that only He could weave together.
Additionally, just as the weft is designed to carry little tension, so we are meant to unburden ourselves of the things in our lives that we alone cannot carry. If we take God out of the equation and attempt to do things on sheer self-reliance what we get is the equivalent of a loose thread striving to do a job that is impossible to accomplish alone.
I love that God gave us visual pictures to help us understand His principles. The next time you put on your favorite shirt or dry the dishes with a sturdy dish towel, I hope you remember that the Lord desires our dependence on Him just as the weft fiber of the material relies on the strength of the warp to hold them together. It is His strength that holds our lives together, yet He invites us in and makes something beautiful when we allow Him to weave as He would, the events and situations that create the beautiful masterpiece of our lives.
Image by Sabine van Erp from Pixabay
