His Designed Purpose
how God used crochet to highlight His surprise weavings in my life
“So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are His lovers who have been called to fulfill His designed purpose. For He knew all about us before we were born and destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of his Son.” Romans 8:28 - 29a, TPT
I have been crocheting for almost two years now, thanks to my daughter in law, Nicole, who taught me. Somehow, crocheting, for me, taps in to both the creative and the organized sides of my brain.
This picture is of a small blanket I crocheted last summer. In a way, it reminds me of me - colorful and ordered, each square connected to the other. I will come back to it later in this essay.
When I was a young child, I was quite shy and very quiet. Although I had a few close friends and cousins, when I was in public or at school, I was quiet as a mouse.
My mother, in contrast to me, was a bold and confident woman who led worship at our church and was the choir director, leading both the adult and children’s choirs. Me singing in the children’s choir under her tutelage was where my love of singing began and where I started to gain confidence little by little.
At home, my mom played piano and sang too. One of my earliest memories of Mom and I is of me standing beside the piano while my mom played each key one by one, and asked me to sing the note she was playing. This helped with my pitch and also connected us in a special way.
Mom also taught my brothers and I to sing harmony, which we used while in choir and in duets or trios with each other.
In middle school, I got involved in music and theater, which opened me up even more and changed the trajectory of my life, so much so, that by the time I graduated from high school, I thought I wanted to be a singer.
In a previous post, I wrote more about how theater transformed my life. That essay is like the part 1 to this one. You can read about it below if you missed it…
So In 1989, I packed up my car and drove to Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois, the only college that offered a Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) Degree at that time. It impressed me that Greenville was the school was where “Jars of Clay,” a Christian alternative rock and folk band, met and started their group.
One of the highlights of my time at Greenville was being able to meet and personally interact with CCM singers, musicians and bands who came to our school regularly to speak and give concerts. I met Bryan Duncan, Mylon LeFever, DC Talk and others, for those of you familiar with those names.
My favorite memory there is of a night that Phil Keaggy gave a concert in our dining hall. All of the dining tables and chairs were cleared away and couches and comfy chairs had been brought in. Phil played only his acoustic guitar. It felt magical and surreal, made more so since it was snowing outside and we were cozied up inside, Phil skillfully playing his acoustic guitar and singing with his “honeycomb tenor” voice.
Although I enjoyed my time at Greenville College, I only ended up attending for one year, as I had been feeling a pull to do some kind of short-term missions. This resulted in me going on a trip to Trinidad in the Caribbean with my parents and meeting my husband there. (This is the “nutshell” version, there is much more to tell about how we met, which I plan to I write about in a future post.)
My life direction changed dramatically in a moment, me thinking I was just taking a year off of school, but instead, meeting my husband, getting married six months later and moving to Trinidad.
After I got married, my husband and I got involved with leading the youth in our church, where we often incorporated drama. I also led children’s church which included weekly skits and songs and writing and performing puppet skits with my puppets, named Joshua and Rebecca.
One of the most favorite things I did was writing a modern day Good Samaritan skit that we performed in a public square in downtown Port of Spain.
At home, I taught private music lessons - piano, flute and saxophone. For a year, I had a job at a school where I taught music and wrote a musical for the children and even performed with them in it.
While having started off wanting to be a singer, it is interesting to see how my life has unfolded differently. I have still been able to be involved in music and drama over the years, but not in the way I had originally perceived or thought.
Back to my crocheted blanket. I had been working on it in the evenings to unwind, while sitting on our couch. One morning, though, I decided to take my almost finished project outside to crochet and discovered that I had joined my squares together and bordered my blanket with two different kinds of white! This only became evident in the natural light.
I had no idea this was what I had been doing and was shocked and dismayed when I noticed it! At first, I was upset and even considered taking my blanket apart and redoing each area where I had unknowingly used the off-white color.
But after looking at it more, I showed my family and we laughed about it. We decided it was, as Bob Ross says, “A happy little accident!” 😆😁 I quite like it now, the antique white softens the look and it is certainly unique!
Where I thought that I wanted to be a singer when I “grew up,” God had very different plans for my life. Although it has still involved singing, it has played out in a whole different way than I expected.
When God’s perfect light shines on our lives, it highlights things we may not see with the human eye. Often different than what we expected or planned for, His ways show the uniqueness of our journey and how He has created us.
Just like the green square of my blanket is outlined in antique white, which highlights it, this essay is highlighting the area of my life I thought was going to look a specific way. Instead of me becoming a singer, that “square” of my life has been so much richer and fuller, incorporating all kinds of singing, teaching and acting.
The verse below is similar to the one I quoted at the beginning,
“May He grant you according to your heart’s desire, and fulfill all your purpose.”Psalm 20:4 NKJV.
I believe that He has woven every detail of my life together to fulfill, not what I thought I wanted for my life, but according to His perfect plan. It has even been aligned with my heart’s desires, although I don’t think I even really know what my heart desired when I was back in high school.
I can’t imagine how different my life would have turned out if I would’ve become a Contemporary Christian singer. I don’t think it would have been easy or even possible to do alongside raising nine children and having a husband very involved in business and ministry. But God knew!
Stay tuned for the next part in my drama story.
This is beautiful Cheryl! The words…and the blanket! 😍