Dance All Over God's Heaven!: Paper Dolls...

My Father Knows What He is About...

I am often recruited by my children and grandchildren to help them imagine (and sometimes, create!) a craft project that they have been assigned but have no idea how to complete. How can I say no? I always seem to have more fun than they do with whatever the project is!
I guess I am an incurable kid at heart.
Give me some paints and scissors and leave me alone for at least a couple of hours.
Don't even think of taking them away...
It could get embarrassing to see a grown woman throwing a temper tantrum on the floor.
I want my crayons! NOW!!

This weekend, Ella came over, anxiety written all over her little face, over, of all things, a craft project! Now, how could any grandchild of mine have anxiety over a craft project?!
What was it, you ask? She was required to make a paper doll! How could anyone get anxiety ridden over a fun assignment like that? I know - hard to imagine, right?! Little did she know just how much she had come to the right place! I am a paper doll fashioneesta , if ever there was one! So off we both went, selecting the perfect pink satin fabric for a fairy princess; drawing the stick figure dolly, with her pretty face and locks falling down her cheeks. She was gorgeous when we finished with her! Well, not really, but, we were pretending! Make believe is an essential ingredient in every work of art! When we were finished, Ella was thrilled with her pretty paper doll. A masterpiece from her own little hand and imagination. It doesn't get much better than that in my world!

I say all that to say this: I have been caught up in sewing for my granddaughter, Ella, a pretty little dress that suits her personality. All in pinks, with hearts and love splashed all over the face of the fabric, I think she will love it when it's done. Not quite there yet, but almost. I am posting some pics of the "work" in progress. I sometimes get bogged down with sewing. I always like it better as an idea than I do during the actual doing of it! Can you relate?!

As I was doing this dress - cutting out the pieces, choosing which fabric to use that perfectly suits Ella's personality, I thought of the Lord, imagining Him having all the pattern pieces to my life, cutting off this remnant, adding this decoration, piercing the fabric with His needle as it goes in and out of the seams of my life.

He knows how all the pieces fit together - something I have a hard time imagining.

He has perfectly chosen what will best compliment the me that He, Himself, has fashioned with His own hands.

I, like Ella, have never seen the pattern pieces He is using to make the finished piece. My granddaughter doesn't ask me how I made the dress, She doesn't think to argue with me about how the pieces will fit together. If I show her little eight year old eyes the pattern, it just looks like a bunch of craziness to her! How in the world could those pieces fit together to make something pretty that she will love? She doesn't ask. She just looks up at me with perfect trust that I, the seamstress, have a plan in mind. I can visualize the finished work. And she is perfectly content with that. She trusts that I will make her something beautiful, because I love her, I know her and I am working on her behalf. That's all she needs to know.
She is perfectly content with that knowledge.
I want to be like her when I grow up!

This weekend, watching my little granddaughter create her "masterpiece" I reminded myself that we aren't little paper dolls. We are real life, flesh and blood people who sometimes argue with the Pattern Maker, sometimes insisting that we know more than He does about who we are or what we want to be. But, we just see a little piece of the picture. He has the whole pattern in His mind's eye. I don't understand why He is cutting that piece off. Why is he pulling the threads so tight over here? Why did He choose that color for me? Doesn't He know that I look better in red than in blue? I argue with Him about so many of the decisions He makes about me. Imagining that I know more than He does about me, I question His choices for me.

Does He know what He's doing?Sometimes, I just get scared that I am not in charge.
I have to trust that, when it comes to me,
He knows what He is about.
After all, I am no paper doll.
I am His child.
Precious beyond words to My Heavenly Father.
He knows what He is about...

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Here's a few pics of Ella's dress in process. Not a finished work yet!
I'll try to remember to post a pic of Ella wearing it when it's done!

Fabric for a girly girl!