Letting God make the quilt

CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON

NOTE: Cindy Trane Christeson is on a short sabbatical. Here is her

column from Oct. 6, 2001.

“God may be invisible, but he’s in touch. You may not be able to

see him, but he is in control. And that includes you -- your

circumstances. That includes what you’ve just lost. That includes

what you’ve just gained. That includes all of life -- past, present

future.”

-- CHARLES R.

SWINDOLL

“I hate orange,” my friend said. “I am not an orange person.”

I’ve never forgotten those words, that friend or the day she spoke

to a group of women years ago. This friend hates public speaking. It

makes her nervous.

She has no speaking degree, but God wove her wounds and words

together in a powerful message that silenced a large audience.

She left us in tears, but she shared how God faithfully and

lovingly rebuilt her life after it was shattered because of betrayal

and loss.

My friend’s name echoed through my mind twice lately. The first

time was during those early hours of tragedy on the East Coast.

Her name echoed again recently upon hearing of other deep pain and

sorrow. I called, left a message and she returned my call within

hours. We talked about her message from years ago, because so much of

it applies to so many people today.

“We’ll all face tragedies when it seems like our world is crashing

down,” she said.

“We don’t always choose our circumstances, but we can choose our

responses. We can turn to God.”

My friend loves quilting and had a beautiful scrap quilt next to

her as she spoke about her life years ago.

“It’s really fun and easy to go buy new fabric, plan your quilt,

work with everything new and put it together to make something

beautiful,” she explained.

“But scrap quilting is different. You take all the leftover pieces

and you have to be creative and patient while rearranging and

balancing it all. It makes a quilt with character.

“Years ago I felt like I handed all the pieces over to God since

he is the master creator. And he was doing the creative healing in my

life, putting the pieces together.”

She said she liked some of the scrap colors, but didn’t like

orange or purple.

But she said they got lost in the beauty and balance of the quilt.

It’s like the lessons of pain in our life,” she said.

She explained that trust in God threaded the scraps together and

that God’s love and faithfulness gave stability to her life, just

like the backing to her quilt.

“God gave us our full range of emotions,” she explained. “We

aren’t authentic when we squelch that. He’s big enough to handle all

our feelings, even if we are angry at him. I didn’t understand that

at first.”

She remembers raising her fist toward heaven and saying, “God,

where are you? What am I going to do?”

Some of you may be asking some of those same questions right now.

My friend would remind you that it takes time to grieve before

moving on.

“There are no quick fixes, no Band-Aids that you can put on gaping

wounds.”

Just as my friend did, we can all give God the many different

colored scraps in our lives, and watch what our master creator

quilts.

And you can quote me on that.

* CINDY TRANE CHRISTESON is a Newport Beach resident who speaks

frequently to parenting groups. She may be reached via e-mail at

cindy@onthegrow.com or through the mail at 537 Newport Center Drive,

Box 505, Newport Beach, CA 92660.