My Life as a (Red) String

My story is one of a million, yet fits into one grand story. I often picture my life as one tiny string in a beautiful tapestry, woven together by a Master Weaver. He sees all the colours, lines and shadows in the pattern, and I am willing to let Him guide me through His tapestry as He lovingly chooses. He has created me a certain “colour,” and He knows when and where my colour should be used. At times, I may be a key colour in the grand design. At others, I may be hidden in the background, so other colours may be accentuated. I do not know His final picture, but I trust the Weaver – my Maker, my Hero, my Friend: Jesus Christ.

I kind of hope I'm a red string. I like red. Red gets noticed.

Let me share a story of how I began to understand this tapestry and gain a glimpse of the part I play.
My “string” crossed another “string” in my grade twelve year. I met a girl named Krystal at church. She was new and around my age, so I invited her over to my place for the afternoon. I sprawled on my bed and Krystal lounged on a chair as she shared her story. “I just moved here from Smiths Falls, but my grandparents have lived here for several years. They moved here after my grandpa retired from his ministry as a pastor and church-planter in Quebec. We'll be here for a while...probably for good.”
I didn't know her grandparents, but I loved Quebec. After two summers of working at a Christian camp in the Eastern Townships, the spiritual needs of this province weighed heavily on my heart. Quebec's suicide rates were the highest in the nation, spiritual hunger revealed itself in curiosity about the occult, and less than 1% of the population claimed to be evangelical Christians. In Quebec, there is one church for every 50 000 people. In the rest of Canada, there is one church for every 2 000 people. I wanted to see more churches in Quebec filled with passionate disciples of Christ. This girls's grandfather, more than thirty years ago, had laboured for the same cause. Coincidence? Maybe. If you believe in those.
I didn't recognize this as a God-incidence until five years later, when I applied to a government-funded French immersion program, my heart still burning for Quebec. The “Odyssey” program involved moving to Quebec for nine months to work as a Language Assistant for English teachers in public schools. With my passion for Quebec, teaching, and learning French combined, I am convinced God God led me very specifically to this program. I opted to be placed in a rural community but had no further control over where in the expansive province I would be asked to go. But the Weaver was holding tightly to my string—He (partnering with the Odyssey program) placed me in Abitibi-Temiscamingue, the same region where Krystal's grandfather had worked years before. Coincidence? Maybe. If you believe in those.

I don't. I believe the Master Weaver was at work.