Stitch by Stitch

I'm an obsessive cross stitcher. Hardly a day goes by that you won't find me needle in hand stitching. That's been going on for probably seven years now. I've always enjoyed handiwork and over the years have made many things -- crocheting, quilting, sewing, and crafting of some kind or another. One of my dearest friends teases me and says that if I make one of something, I sometimes end up making 52 of the same thing because I enjoyed making the one so much!

Almost seven years ago, I just happened to be working on a cross stitch project when I started having strange blinking problems with my eyes. The funny thing was that the involuntary blinking would stop whenever I picked up the cross stitch to work on. After a year or so of thinking I was going crazy, I was diagnosed with a neurological disorder called blepharospasm (involuntary spasms of the eyelids). And one of the quirks of the disorder is that when you're involved in some kind of handiwork -- like crocheting, knitting, cross stitching -- the brain is distracted and the blinking stops.

So needless to say, my cross stitching projects are always near at hand. I write all this to say that the cross stitching didn't just help me see physically, but I think it's helped me to see into myself. What does that mean?

In the quietness of cross stitching, my thoughts wander here and there. I guess I do think about other things besides what to make for dinner and whether or not to start a load of wash.

The other day it crossed my mind that life can be like an impressionist painting -- sometimes there's no visible pattern in the picture until it's all done. It was that way while I was stitching The Garden of Flowers by Van Gogh pictured above. It just seemed to be globs of color with no discernible pattern....that is, until it was completely done. Wow! As the stitcher, I had to trust the graph which instructed what color stitch to put where. Just so, I have to trust God as He stitches my life stitch by stitch. Sometimes it seems there's no discernible pattern as to why certain things happen, but in the end, my prayer is that picture of my life will glorify Him!