The other weaving

“It is the living who mourn at a funeral – not the dead. We mourn because the lives of the dead had made our own more lively, and since we are (or had been) so knit together, the loss of another’s strand will eventually cause our own unraveling. Fellowship is the mingling of threads that make up a fabric, and only in a fabric do we have some kind of meaningfulness.” (Rich Mullins)

My life is but a weaving, between the Lord and me

I cannot choose the colors; He worketh steadily

Sometimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride

Forget He sees the upper, and I, the underside…

(The Weaver, author unknown)

We the Church are a fabric woven in time. I am a strand. You are a strand. Together we form the fabric of the Church that wraps around, comforts and loves. Never static, it moves and shifts and changes daily. Each strand morphs slowly, or rapidly, over time, through the wine press of life. Delicate yet formidable, it is intricately beautiful, even with all its faults, and infinitely colorful, even with all its dark spots. Ever changing, it remains the same through all of time.

With each addition to the Church, a new strand is woven in, drawing it into the future.

With the death of each saint, a strand is pulled from the tapestry on earth…and woven into another in Heaven.

One day I’ll stand in Heaven, drinking in the fragrance of the knowledge of God. And I’ll run my eyes over the tapestry of the Church from the dawn of time until its end, shimmering in the light of God Himself, and I’ll fall on my face in worship of the only One who could so perfectly prepare on earth each strand to be woven into such a perfect and glorious, infinitely intricate tapestry of saints.

I am not worthy to be woven with the likes of Rich Mullins, Corrie ten Boom, Martin Luther or John Calvin, and even less with such saints as the Apostle Paul, Moses or Abraham. Yet there I will be. Oh Lord, let me only live in such a way as to not diminish their witness and their work, which is Your work. Live in me, that I might one day blend into the smallest corner of that tapestry.

Mat 5:4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.