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The Fabric of Our Lives

Woven fabric is made of many pieces of yarn laid out lengthwise and a single, long piece of yarn running back and forth crosswise; being drawn over and under. Weavers call the lengthwise pieces the warp and the crosswise piece the weft. The warp will never be a fabric without the weft to hold it all together. 

    We often hear the phrase: “the fabric of society” in public discourse and private conversation. Every society, whether it be a city, town, neighborhood, or community is a complex system comprised of many individuals working and living together to create a civil, safe, and prosperous world in which to live. Politicians, preachers, and pundits will often identify threats to this “fabric”, warning that this, that, or the other thing threatens to tear it all up. Now, in the weaver’s work, the warp isn’t nearly as important as the weft. Any number of single threads can fail or tear or be pulled out and it won’t compromise the whole. But if the long, crosswise weft thread is removed, there is no fabric left to speak of. All that remains is a pile of yarn. As we examine the fabric of our society today, we need not worry so much about Hollywood, Washington D.C., or any other of the many individual entities that lay alongside each other across our land. What we need to worry about is whether or not the weft thread of the truth of Scripture, the fear of God, and the Biblical worldview is holding strong; binding us all together. It’s overwhelming to bear the burden of the whole world and the fabric of its construction. But we need not be Atlas. God has called us to make sure that the weft of His Word runs first through our own hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits; making secure the society of our souls. Second, we ensure that reverence for God runs crosswise through every room and relationship in the family home. And finally we work to make sure that God’s will and way holds our church family together by God’s Word being drawn over and under every committee, program, ministry, budget, and member at Emmanuel. What God weaves together this way across an entire land is part of the miracle of the Holy Spirit’s work of revival. The warp and weft of the world has everything to do with the warp and weft of the self.

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Home for Christmas

The other night, the clouds parted over our busy December calendar and Lisa and I decided to buckle
the kids into the minivan and make for Lowes. It was time to find our 2018 family Christmas tree! On
the drive over, I made the mistake of personifying the tree and telling my six, four, and two year old that
right now, somewhere on the Lowes lot, there was a very sad and lonely tree that has been enduring
many long, cold nights waiting for us to come and pick him up and who has spent several anxious days
worried that some other family was going to buy him first and take him away. Our tree couldn’t wait to
be rescued and brought to our warm, cozy little home; I told them. This, of course, spiked the anxiety
level on what was already a somewhat stressful errand. We were barely into the Garden Center when
my two little girls took off sprinting in the direction of the “cries” coming from some motley little tree.
“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! We’ve got to save him! This one!” I reached in and grabbed the trunk and set
the tree upright in the aisle and began the usual assessment. Every Christmas tree shopper is looking to
check three boxes on their balsam, fir, or white pine. Does the tree have the right shape? Is its trunk
straight? Is it free of a bunch of bare spots? We shake its boughs down, we twirl it, looking it up and
down, and we see if we can plumb its main line. Thankfully for me, the tree that the girls embraced
wasn’t all that bad and we were able to rescue it.

This whole process got me to thinking about how God selects those who would be rescued and brought
into His home this Christmas. Are there boxes that God checks when He looks you and me over? Do we
have to have that right look? Do we have to have a past and present that isn’t too crooked? Do we
have to be leading full, vibrant lives without a lot of bare spots? That’s when I remembered the passage
of Scripture in Mark chapter 2 that gives Jesus’ response to the charge that He was spending too much
time in the company of questionable folk. Here’s what Jesus said: “Those who are well have no need of
a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” God sent His son into
the world for the motliest of us; for the grossly misshapen, the crooked, and barren. He takes us into
His home and strings us with His heavenly light and adorns us with all the ornaments of His Gospel. And
then the greatest of Christmas miracles happens. Having been chosen, redeemed, and loved; we soon
take the shape of our Savior. Our pasts, presents and futures are straightened out and everything
missing is filled in. Those were glad tidings the angels sang! So, cry out to the Lord this Christmas – He’s
anxious to come to your rescue and take you home to be with Him! Merry Christmas!

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What Falls in My Yard

The beautiful sugar maple standing tall in the dooryard of your house is yours.  Its sap, its shade, its bark and branches, its trunk and treetop view; they’re all yours.  What’s also all yours is every lovely little leaf turned golden yellow and candy apple red that the wind shakes loose every autumn.  What becomes of all those leaves anyway?  Surely they don’t all fall in your yard.

I spent a good bit of time this weekend raking up in front and behind the house.  As I was making piles and wrangling tarps, the thought entered my mind: “I wonder how many of the leaves I’m laboring over fell from neighbor’s trees and I wonder how many of my leaves are making work for my neighbors?”  I thought about it some and concluded that there’s no telling exactly.  But I’m sure the number isn’t none.  Everyone in our neighborhood shares a little of their fallen foliage with everyone else.  It would be nearly impossible and more than a little silly for me to traipse up and down the street endeavoring to collect all my wayward leaves.  And I certainly wouldn’t expect the Joneses to come over and claim their runaways from out of my shrubs and fence lines.  The burden of autumn is just a collective one I suppose.  This is kind of how it is in a church family.  No matter the season, we all have troubles and trials that we are dealing with.  Most of these are burdens that we alone must bear.  But like the wind, the Spirit will often direct some of my troubles to your dooryard to share with me and some or yours to mine.  The burden of the world, for the church, is a collective one I suppose.  And I love the Lord for it.  “Joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod, for I’m part of the family, the family of God!”

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