“Read it again!” My friend, Susan, was bent over an ironing board trying to make two pieces of fabric come together to create a mitered corner. Somehow, the instructions were clearer when heard out loud, rather than reading them to herself. I read, she manipulated fabric, and finally, everything clicked, and the corner was nicely mitered. Sidebar – I don’t use mitered corners on my quilts, unless it’s absolutely necessary for the design, in which case, I choose a different design.
Last week, my daily reading took me to the portion of Exodus where God is giving Moses instructions on how to build the tabernacle and how to make the clothing for the priests, clothing that was made a certain way “for beauty and glory.” As I read, I couldn’t help but remember that day Susan and I were trying to figure out how to miter our quilt corners. I pictured the Israelites, perplexed, scratching their beards, yelling to Moses, “Read it again!”
Sometimes we don’t trust the instructions we’re given. It happened to me again just this week. Assembling the quilt block in the attached picture, I followed the instructions, but it just didn’t seem like the pieces could possibly come together to make the sailboat. I laid all the pieces out. I even overlapped them to account for the seams. But it just didn’t seem right. A few of the pieces were just too big. They couldn’t possibly fit together to make a 6 ½” block.
Maybe I cut the triangles the wrong size. That would account for the difference. I recut the triangles ¼” smaller and then sewed the pieces together. They didn’t fit. They were too small. Impossible. I went back to the original measurements given in the instructions, sewed all the little pieces together, and voila, a perfect little sailboat block.
How did they all come together correctly when it looked like they would never work? Someone with much greater knowledge than me had created the pattern, so they knew exactly how big each piece needed to be. I should have trusted the pattern maker.
Back in Exodus, God gave very specific instructions for the tabernacle, and then the temple. And his instructions were followed to the letter. They had to be. He would accept nothing less.
Today there is no tabernacle or temple. But we have something better. God sent Jesus in the flesh to tabernacle (live) with us. After his death, he sent the Holy Spirit to live within us, making our bodies his temple. And he gave us his living Word, full of wisdom and instructions, all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
We can trust the instructions he has given us because they are his design. He knows how it will all turn out, even when we don’t see how it could possibly work. As the creator and sustainer of all there is, his instructions are flawless and produce beauty and glory when followed.
And the best part is we can “read it again!” (out loud if necessary).
Lisa J Radcliff ~ Finding Freedom from the Past 