“Master Weaver”

God is the master weaver of all the events of our lives. He uses all things in his celestial designs. When Paul wrote these words to the Romans, he had that thought in mind: “ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). We have such disdain for the bad things that happen, but we often forget that God is not limited in his masterpiece by our mistakes or the sins of others if we surrender to his will. He uses all things and works them out for the good, according to his design.

When Paul was imprisoned in Rome, some thought that Paul had suffered a setback, but the Apostle saw it differently: “As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly” (Philippians 1:13-14). If Rome thought they were going to curtail this new sect by arresting Paul, they were dead wrong. Paul wrote his best letters from prison, and he inspired others by his fearless faith.

My family and I traveled from Buenos Aires to the Province of Tucuman in Argentina to make our home there many years ago. It was a trip of over 700 miles. We were driving a pickup that was pulling a trailer loaded with many of our possession, and among them were all of our major appliances. Just twenty miles before we reached our destination, a truck loaded with sugar cane pulled out in front of us which caused me to swerve to keep from hitting him. This resulted in the trailer coming unhitched and careening into a canal with about five feet of water. It was a discouraging sight to see all of our things in that canal in the water.

Some of our things had fallen out on the ground, and people were taking them. There sat all of our appliances in the canal. What do we do now? A generous family we had never met came out and invited Marilyn and our two small children to come into their house while I went looking for some means of getting us out of the ditch. I found a farmer with a tractor and was finally able to get the trailer out of the canal, and we were able to be on our way once again. The appliances had been damaged along with the pickup and trailer. It was extremely frustrating. However, years later we could look back and see that God opened incredible doors to meeting people as we sought help in repairing the pickup and all the damaged goods. There were people to whom we were able to share the gospel. In fact, some people came to know the Lord through that accident. Truly, he is the Master Weaver.