God Directs and then He Redirects

Tuesday Thought 12.5.23

How to attach the slick laminated map to the gessoed stretched canvas?

Recently, I was tasked with producing a 2x3 feet wall display to illustrate where our congregation supports God’s work locally and around the world.

I’d purchased a black wooden frame and a black stretched art canvas, along with a laminated world map. I’d printed labels.

But what would adhere the dissimilar materials? Unlike a cork bulletin board, I couldn’t pin into it. I considered sewing them together, but that seemed unwieldy and if it didn’t work, the map would have unalterable little holes.

Glue could work, maybe, but how could I keep the glue contained under the map so the edge didn’t look messy with excess glue?

Finally, in a burst of inspiration I credited to the Holy Spirit, I thought: double stick tape! Yes. Brilliant.

I put it together and weighted it with books for 24 hours to enhance the adhesion. It leaned against the wall the next day and looked great.

For a few hours.

Until the map started pulling away from the canvas. Oops. Doggone it. I laid it out on the dining room table again. It was, actually, about 1/4 inch off of square, so I repositioned it. Which was possible because the tape, though not enough to secure it, was enough to hold it in place briefly.

In fact, enough to keep it positioned while I lifted up half dozen places on the edge to squeeze tiny drops of superglue under the edge. Which worked! It’s now hanging in our little lobby.

But what about that sense I had that the Holy Spirit had inspired the double stick tape? Why had He given me an idea that didn’t work? What was that about?

Um, it didn’t work in the way I thought it was going to work. It did, however, work to baste the map in place so the glue could be applied with greater precision.

How many times has God led us part way but we thought it was the whole solution?

It reminds me of a time when my husband, a potter, and I were young and naive. We felt God was calling us to open a coffee house with a pottery attached. The Potter’s House, we’d call it. Our pastor and board listened to our ideas.

Pastor Dick went with us to a dilapidated building we thought we could renovate, with the church’s help. He stepped over the debris and examined the damaged walls with us. He said, “Well, we’ll have to see what the board thinks.”

The idea fell apart. But Dick had taken us seriously. He conveyed God’s affirmation when I desperately needed affirmation. That was the important part.

Like the double stick tape was for temporary hold, not the whole solution, the coffee house idea was a way for God to feed my young needy heart, but not a fully actionable idea.

What we think is the end point is often God at work, yes, but in ways we didn’t anticipate.

Let’s bless the mystery and trust Him, no matter what.