Down Memory Lane...

"Hold tight to the sound of the music of living...
Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come,
But we have this moment
TODAY."

 

The other Saturday I took a trip down memory lane as I sorted through

all my scraps of fabrics,

leftovers from all the dresses and craft projects I have done

over the past 17 years.

 

I thought of the years gone before us

as I saw each scrap and remembered...

 

little girls giggling under the vine-covered arbor,

blonde ponytails blowing in the breeze,

sunny yellow dresses matching the smiles on their faces

 

I remembered...

butterfly dresses and summer fun

 

I remembered...

the mother/daughter look-alikes,

first with one daughter,

then with two...

 

I remembered...

a little girl happily digging through scraps,

having the time of her life making

skirts for her doll friends,

giggling with her cousin who always brought

her doll family along when they came for a visit.

 

And then I thought of how that chapter of my life is closed.

No more little girls giggling and playing doll.

No more school girls with their front teeth missing,

going off to school in their blue and white checked apple dresses.

 

No more baby dresses and
no more maternity clothes to sew.
 

All chapters of my life that appear to be over.
 

Now,

I have 'big girl' dresses to make,

finding modest patterns that work for these
girls-turned-women.

 

Now I have girls who choose their own fabrics,

and sew some of their own clothes.

 

I am enjoying the now.

But I am so happy to have memories of yesterday,

to reflect over the rough ways and wide that we have traveled,

ever so grateful that

 

 

"Jesus led (us) all the way".

 

I will put these fabrics into scrappy quilts,
stories of our laughter, lessons, love and tears
woven into each patch.

and give my girls the memories to take with them

into homes of their own.

 One day these quilts will provide warmth on fridgid winter nights,

or be honored guests at impromptu picnics on the green ,

or snuggle tired children who have run and played the day away.

And their mamas will trace the fabrics,

remembering the days in their father's house

where happiness and peace were the norm,

where safety was theirs,

and their parents taught them of Jesus

and to serve others because of Him.

Reflecting on life as
 I was sorting these scraps
really had me thinking of how short a life really is.
When my life's work is ended,
will it be work that my Father can say to me,
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant.
Enter into My joy"?

I also was thinking that for all the years that these
scraps have been piling up in my totes,
they were lived one day at a time.
Some days (many of them) filled with heartache
and questions, ponderings, and choices to make
of where my next step was going to be taken...
choices of whether I was going to believe the God of
my fathers or to walk a way where He is not...
choices of whether to let myself be continually
sanctified and perfected in the image of Christ,
of if I would stalemate and be content with mediocrity
and complacency.

And I could not see ahead very far at all.
None of us can.
But walking by faith will get us to those mountain tops
where we can turn and look behind us and say
of the view,
"That is incredible! Only a Master could paint such
a picture!"


Then I found this quote that seemed to just tie up
these thoughts pretty good. I hope you enjoy it, too:

Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern--
it will come out a rose by and by.
Life is like that...
one stitch at a time, taken patiently."

--Oliver Wendell Holmes