As we go through life, we encounter countless challenges, complications, heartaches, joys, and circumstances that shape not only the course of our lives but also the people we become.

There have been many times in my own life when things seemed complicated and confusing, and I found myself wondering what God’s plan was and wishing He would simply show it to me. It is only later in life, when we look back over the years, that we begin to recognize God’s hand at work. I have almost always had a sense that God was guiding the events of my life for a greater purpose, even when I couldn’t understand why certain things were happening.

I would love to share all those experiences with you, but it would take hundreds of pages to do them justice. What I have come to realize, however, is that my life is much like the back of an embroidery board. When you look at the back, you see knots, loose threads running in every direction, mismatched colors, and stitches that look as though a five-year-old made them. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to any of it. It’s simply a tangled mess.

But when you turn that embroidery board over, something remarkable happens. Suddenly, all those seemingly random threads and knots come together to reveal a beautiful picture. Every stitch, every color, and every thread on the back had a purpose. What looked like a mess was actually part of a carefully planned design, necessary to create the finished picture on the front.

And that’s really the point. Our lives often look like the back of that embroidery board because we can only see what is happening at the moment, not what God is creating. Every disappointment, every hurt, every troubled relationship, job change, financial setback, health concern, and unexpected turn in life becomes part of the tapestry of who we are. We may not understand the purpose of those experiences while we’re going through them, but that doesn’t mean God isn’t at work.

I’ve come to believe that one day, when we are finally able to see the other side, we will understand how all those tangled threads fit together. What once seemed confusing or even painful will make sense in the light of God’s greater plan. And as I look back over my own life, I can already see glimpses of that picture taking shape.

Sometimes we just have to trust the one holding the needle, even when all we can see are the knots and tangled threads. KT