The Weaver

Grant Colfax Tullar

My life is but a weaving

Between my God and me.

I cannot choose the colors;

He weaveth steadily.

Ofttimes He weaveth sorrow,

And I in foolish pride

Forget He sees the upper,

And I the underside.

Not till the loom is silent

And the shuttles cease to fly,

Will God unroll the canvas

And reveal the reason why.

The dark threads are as needful

In the Weaver's skillful hand

As the threads of gold and silver

In the pattern He has planned.

He knows, He loves, He cares;

Nothing this truth can dim.

He gives the very best to those

Who leave the choice to Him.

Grant Colfax Tullar, the author of The Weaver, knew suffering. Orphaned as a young child, raised through hardship, and later called into ministry, he wrote from a life that had been tested rather than sheltered. The exact date the poem was written is unknown, though it is believed to have been written in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century.

For many years it was mistakenly attributed to Corrie ten Boom because she often shared its beautiful imagery. Yet these words belong to a man who learned that faith is often choosing to trust God long before we understand what He is doing.

This poem found me at a time when I have asked some of the hardest questions of my life. Where are You, God? What are You doing? Why does so much hurt? I have wanted answers, explanations, and certainty. Instead, I have often been met with silence and an invitation to trust.

Romans 8:28 has become less of a neat promise and more of a lifeline. It does not say that everything is good. It says that God is working in all things for good. There is a profound difference. Walter Brueggemann writes that life moves through seasons of orientation, disorientation, and reorientation.

I have learned that God rarely rushes us through disorientation. He meets us there. The dark threads are not evidence that He has abandoned us. They are simply the part of the tapestry we can see from underneath. The Weaver sees the whole design.

My prayer is that, even when I cannot make sense of my circumstances, I will have the courage to keep trusting the One whose hands have never left the loom.

Praise Be to God who faithfully walks all His kids thru the hard times, rejoices when they rejoice and weeps with each one of their precious tears. Oh' where would we be without Jesus.