A friend reminds me of all that goes into building a life–all the influences and teachers and experiences that shape faithfulness and maturity in another person. When we encounter someone, we become a tiny part–a little thread–in the tapestry of that life.
And we can be tiny. We don’t have to be everything. We aren’t everything.
I think about this in terms of parenting or in the scope of my ministry. Our words or actions might serve as the tiny thread that shifts the design, untangles a knot, or connects two larger threads so the pattern begins to make sense. It’s humbling, wise, and honest to admit we live as tiny threads.
Nearly imperceptible, we might just enter a life as it unravels. Our little thread might tie up a loose end, might fix a hole, might begin something new. We won’t know until heaven how our life threaded throughout the pattern of so many others. And we don’t have to know. We just have to stand ready for God to weave us in, secure us as He wishes, and approach others with gentleness and awe that now, our designs intertwine.