And one thing leads to another

I am by nature a reflective person.  By that I mean I have been know to look back at a situation in my past and hash over it to find hidden meanings, relationships to current circumstances and ways it has effected my life.  Take for example, Hurricane Ike of 2008.  The massive hurricane left a city of 4 million in the dark for almost two weeks but it was a single point of light for me that altered the course of my life, the lives of my boys, and many others.  It was a series of small things that lined up to create something truly big.

Another chance set of events was set in motion in May of 2000 when my husband decided that we should by a very old house that we couldn't really afford. Did I mention it was a very old house?  With all the financial need bearing down on me, I submitted an application to a company called HP.  I really didn't think anything would come of  it and did it to humor my husband. I fully expected to go back to teaching the following fall...then one thing led to another and they offered me a job.  That single point in life allowed me so many opportunities and 12 years later I am still amazed how one thing led to another.

As a very small child I used to sit in under my mother's quilter's frame and watch as she stretched the quilt to finish the piecing and prepare it for finishing.  From underneath you couldn't see the color or the design but you could see strings and seams some of which were uneven and off kilter.  I wondered if I pulled one string hard enough would the whole thing fall apart?  But my mom and her friends worked diligently for weeks, and soon something pretty emerged...circles and squares of small even white thread stitches on a solid color background. I loved it.  Finally my mother declared it finished and showed me the quilt from above.  The brilliant color patches that appeared to be placed by chance had really been woven into an intricate and amazing pattern. The circles and squares I knew were hidden in the peaks and valleys of the fluffy welcoming warmth of the blanket. One small thing lead to another and what I thought might have fallen apart has lasted 38 years and sits in my closet reminding me that what God is doing now looks a mess from below but is a masterpiece from above.    No matter that the seams aren't straight and you think it might be falling apart at this very moment.  No matter that all you see is one single color and one repeated design. No matter that you may never see what the quilter sees. Just know that one small thing leads to another and eventually the masterpiece is complete. The truest beauty of that first quilt in my life..all I did was play underneath it paying no mind to what was happening above content to know that my mother was close at hand.  How much I wish that I lived as contendedly now as I did then knowing that is my Father's shadow I see in the chance events of life.