Love Notes

Based on Haggai 1:1-2:23, Psalm 147:7-11, Proverbs 30:20, Revelation 15:1-8.

The visions are so encouraging, GOD, as we await the Day of Your return to cleanse  the earth and reign over it, rebirthed as it was in the beginning, like Eden. We embrace the hope we have in Your Mercy -- that You chose us; we did not choose You (John 15:16); that by Your Grace, our names were written in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain; that Your name for each of us is "Mine." It is not about us, GOD; it's about one, central, eternal fact: Jesus Christ as the center of Your Eternal Purpose. It's about us glorifying Him for eternity, forever -- beyond the limits of time. 

Such mystery, GOD! We cannot comprehend the concept of time without time. So I thank You for showing me that, because You reside in timelessness, You are viewing the entire tapestry from "the finished side." We cannot. Because we are walking in the terms of time, we can only see that "threads" are being woven, broken, knotted, intertwined. We can only see "the wrong side" of Your Tapestry -- the work in progress. And it looks awful!

But Your Word tells us it is lovely beyond belief on the other side. You see each one of Your  Own as a golden thread, making it simple and easy for You to locate us and pull us safely through all the tangles and stops and starts of mortal life. You are working all threads to good in order to complete Your Tapestry of Light Over Darkness.

I don't know why I was chosen to be Yours, LORD GOD, but You say it was so even before the foundations of the earth. Therefore, I know that everyone who is Yours will be found by You, brought through the Eye of the Needle, and woven into Your tapestry as a thread of pure gold. Thank You for the encouragement that gold is refined in the furnace! This reminds me that You will shake heaven and earth in order to strengthen one of Your golden threads, whom You never cease to call "Mine."

Here on the reverse side of the tapestry, victory often seems unlikely or even impossible. But with You, it is not. It is KNOT. Even if You break threads before my very eyes, still I will proclaim that I know that thread is one of Yours; that You intend to compete the work You have begun. Not a single one of Your golden threads will be lost to perdition.

Mystery, LORD it is mystery. But the knowing You have imparted to me this morning is a glorious Christmas gift -- a wondrous, lovely learning -- kneaded deep in my heart. I offer glad tidings for the  great joy of this assurance. Blessed are we who await the revelation of Your completed tapestry when at last You reign over all the earth. 

This photograph was sent to us from Portland, Oregon this Christmas morning. What a great gift!