My life as a Cross Stitch
Once I heard someone say that there are periods in life that resemble the backside of a cross stitch pattern. All you can see is a mess of knots and thread but when you look at it from the top you see a completely different picture and it all makes sense. After a period of time where I was only looking up and seeing knots I have finally gotten a view of the bigger picture.
I am sitting on my comfortable couch in Kansas City, Missouri trying to process everything that has taken place. The past couple months feel like a whirl wind of decisions and crazy events. So far in 2011 I have graduated from college, nannied in Arkansas, turned 22, visited New York, decided to move to Cambodia, sold my car and started the process of packing my life into two suitcases.
At different points I felt like I was trudging through the unknown blind and unaware, not sure of what was going to happen and without any kind of a plan. I made choices and I experienced different things. I met people and lived in various places. With every encounter God stitched another desire or passion in my heart, preparing me for….something. I got to know myself better but ultimately I got to know God better. By “better” I learned that there is so much more to him than I could every understand. The crazy thing about God is that He knew the whole time that I would end up here on my couch, thinking about the past and preparing to move to Cambodia in 15 days…and he was a part of every detail that led to this moment .
The thing is, God answers our prayers before we even pray them. (How else would he have brought together a team of 6 women who are so similar and have hearts for taking Christ to the broken? I grew up in Ecuador and everyone else on my team grew up in different homes, in different states, with different families and yet we find ourselves together now ready to embark on this mission. God is a genius, an artist, a conductor and cross stitcher if you will… And he is so faithful when we obey. I am so excited to see what God has for my team in Cambodia. I love that I can go in confidence, knowing that after graduating, selling my car, raising support and moving to Cambodia there is a beautiful picture on the opposite side of the madness of threads.
My goodness lady, you have come a long way.
Amen girl! I love being able to look back at your life, thus far, and see that there were ordained steps orchestrated by God. So surreal but also so REAL. Love ya.
I am SOOO excited. If I forget why I am doing this or how hard it will be I think of our team and how awesome our God is and that this is going to be a rocking 2 years!
I LOVE the cross stitch comparison…. it’s so true, the back side of any cross stitch I’ve done appears to be quite a chaotic mess, but turning it over reveals something quite beautiful. God is the designer and he has knitted you ladies together beautifully!
Excited with you! Kathy