The First Third of My Life

At the advice of two women I greatly admire - EJD & LCC - I've started to read Corrie ten Boom's "Tramp for the Lord". In the introduction to the book, Corrie shares this poem (written by an anonymous author), that really struck me:

My life is but a weaving, between my God and me,
I do not choose the colors, He worketh steadily,
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent and shuttles cease to fly,
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the skillful Weaver's hand,
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

I've known the story of Corrie ten Boom and "The Hiding Place" ever since I was a child. I remember checking the out "The Hiding Place" on VHS from our church library often as I was growing up, and read the book at some point in maybe junior high or so. Is it strange that as a kid I frequently watched a movie about the Holocaust? I'm actually grateful that my parents didn't shield my sister and I from the story. True, "The Hiding Place" the movie is not nearly as graphic as "Schindler's List" or a documentary, but nevertheless, it dealt with one of the most horrible events in human history. I think my parents were okay with us watching it because they felt we could handle it, and because they wanted to expose us to the movie's message about trusting God in the darkest of times.

But that's not really my point right now...what struck me tonight as I was thinking about Corrie ten Boom (which, by the way, if you've never ready "The Hiding Place" you must do so) is that the first 50 years of her life were absolutely normal and uneventful. She and her sister, Betsy, were both unmarried and lived with their father and ran a watchmakers shop in Haarlem, Holland. I'm sure during the first half of her life Corrie never would have imagined not only the absolute horrors she would experience at the hands of the Nazis, but also the amazing way God would use her to encourage others in the faith and to spread the good news about Christ.

Lord willing, I'm now about one-third of the way through my life. What will the next two-thirds bring? Will I, ten, twenty, or thirty years from now, be looking back to when I was 32 and think "Well, I never would have imagined my life ending up here."? How will God use me in the years to come? I pray He will shield me from pain and sorrow, but knowing the fallen and sinful world we live in, I fear both are inevitable. But so too, is the inevitability of being able to rejoice and rest in His goodness and care...those precious "threads of gold and silver".