Oh what tangled webs

A few years back, I dreamed I was sitting on the floor of my bedroom with blue yarn strewn across the carpet before me. Some of it was still wound nicely in a ball, but the majority was so hopelessly twisted around itself that it seemed an impossibility to untangle. I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task, but knew it was right and necessary to try. As my thoughts wandered toward the easier approach of tossing the whole wad and getting a new one, Jesus came into the room and sat down facing me, the spaghetti-like pile between us. He didn’t seem particularly all-powerful or all-knowing, but warm and friendly – welcome company, for sure.

The mood in the room began to lighten as we chatted, caught up, laughed at times. There wasn’t really anything significant about the conversation. I can’t recall a single word of it. At one point, I looked down and found that our hands had been busy. Little by little, we had been removing knots, unraveling webs, and doing the impossible. The work wasn’t finished; we’d only just begun. But a mark had been made on me about how a relational God often accomplishes mighty things. Not by lightning bolts and magic spells that zap our troubles into extinction or by giving us brand new unblemished situations, but by being with us in the midst of our troubles. Through this – or, rather, through Him – we find grace to lift our eyes off of our daunting messes and enjoy the friendship of our creator as he makes a way with us and for us. What a beautiful thing to see what will be knit with the strands he so caringly restores!

A passage really resonated with me from Prayer A Holy Occupation by Oswald Chambers…

“The meaning of intercession is that we see what God is doing, consequently there is an intimacy between the child and the Father which is never impertinent. We must pour into the bosom of God the cares which give us pain and anxiety in over that He may solve for us, and before us, the difficulties which we cannot solve. We injure our spiritual life when we dump the whole thing down before God and say – You do it. That spirit is blind to the real union with God. We must dump ourselves down in the midst of our problems and watch God solve them for us. ‘But I have no faith’ – bring your problems to God and stay with Him while He solves them, then God Himself and the solution of your problems will be forever your own. If we could see the floor of God’s immediate presence, we would find it strewn with the ‘toys’ of God’s children who have said – This is broken, I can’t play with it anymore, please give me another present. Only one in a thousand sits down in the midst of it all and says – I will watch my Father mend this.”