Weaving it all together

Rhona Cathcart June 09, 2024 6 2

Playlists

Add to Favourites

Save for later

Listen to this daily worship

Ecclesiastes 3: 7 (NRSVA)

7 

a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

I ought to be good at weaving. On my father’s side, I come from a long line of Lanark-based weavers, at least until the industrial revolution when they moved into other occupations. They themselves were possibly descended from further generations of Flemish weavers brought to Scotland in the 17th century.

In my case, genetics must have dropped a thread, because I am better at weaving words than textiles.

In the days when my family were active in weaving, it was something of a cottage industry and could be relatively prosperous. Weavers owned their own looms which they kept in their homes. They wove cloth at a certain rate depending on fabric and design. Paisley was a huge market.

There were magazines for weavers which, I was amused to discover, showcased poetry written by the weavers themselves, alongside the ads. Maybe the genetics have come around after all! In any case, it was a creative, flourishing community.

These weavers were able to develop and follow complex patterns and designs, keeping track of it all. What an eye for detail they must have had! What an ability to keep track of the whole picture, while working on an individual portion.

God is just such a skilled artisan — able to visualise the whole pattern without losing track of a single thread. We see only our own time and the colours immediately around us. God sees and weaves us all.

Prayer:

Holy Weaver

Yours are the eyes of an artisan

Using line and form, texture and colour

To visualise a design we can only guess at.

Yours too are the crafting hands that know

the right time to shed, to let-off, to take-up each thread.

Teach us to trust in those hands.

And in those eyes.

Amen