The Wedding Gown

The gown started as white silk fabric, possibly handed down through the hands of a caring relative or friend. Delicate lace would be the finishing touch, adding beauty to the gown. But in the beginning, to the untrained eye, it surely didn’t look like much! She had no pattern to follow, but the seamstress could see the garment in her mind’s eye.

She began sewing as a young girl, sitting beside her patient mother as she taught her to stitch everything from flour-sack dresses to doilies that softened the rooms of their old farmhouse. Now, at age 20, this gown would be her most important creation yet. She would wear it on her wedding day in that autumn of 1934.

Sometimes our lives can look like an unfinished garment. We see in our mind what we want it to look like, and we work diligently toward the goal. We work to add beauty and grace, while lining the inside to strengthen and add protection from what may try to tear at our progress. But God is the Master Weaver, and when things don’t work out like we hoped, He is there to create something beautiful from what may seem like “scraps” of uneven hems and loose strings left dangling…

The Master Weaver’s Plan
My life is but a weaving
Between the Lord and me;
I may not choose the colors–
He knows what they should be.

For He can view the pattern
Upon the upper side
While I can see it only
On this, the under side.

Sometimes He weaves in sorrow,
Which seems so strange to me;
But I will trust His judgment
And work on faithfully.

‘Tis He who fills the shuttle,
And He knows what is best;
So I shall weave in earnest,
And leave to Him the rest.

Not ’til the loom is silent
And the shuttles cease to fly
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needed
In the Weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

(Author Unknown)

It was my grandmother’s wedding gown created from that white silk fabric, and it was completed in time for her autumn wedding. She smiles back at me in the one professional picture taken on that long ago day in a gown adorned with long, puffed-sleeves, a floor-length veil, and a red rose corsage. A gown perfectly fitted for her.

Until the Master Weaver’s work in our life’s circumstances is complete, we can feel lost–unfinished. Problems present themselves and it seems the beauty we desire is darkened by unexpected “threads.” But when we trust Him, and continue to progress, we will see the finished canvas.”In the pattern He has planned.”