Open Spaces Vol. 20.3

Open Spaces        3-27-2020

Vol. 20.3

I don’t think any of us would have, a year ago, imagined the place we find ourselves at the end of this month. So as we face Covid-19, let us each do our part but not live in fear. Don’t get me wrong there is plenty to be afraid of in this life, and this virus is one of them. However scary as this might seem it is not the end of the world. Friends we will get through this if we all work together.

So most of us are penned up at home. Fact is I normally am, well for the most part. I have given up a few regular outing like going to church, which is a big deal. But by and large I’m working from home or around the farm. There’s always stuff that needs to be done, you know fixing stuff, yada, yada, yada. Soon yard work will do its share to occupy my days. Life goes on doesn’t it?

And then there’s my writing. With all my author’s events put on hold I have a bit more time to assault the keyboard. If you knew how badly I type you would understand that my computer is the victim here. But none the less, I pound, backspace, correct, pound a bit more, and eventually a page is finished. I won’t share what I’m working on but it is enough to tell you I am more than half way through a first draft.

Please don’t hold your breath, or continue to ask me, politely, as you always do, when it will be finished. This book which I am currently working on is a very LONG way from completion. I expect it will take at least THREE YEARS before it reaches publication. That’s 1095 days friends, and I will have to push things to get it done in 2023. But I will finish this project, if God wants me to complete it, and I think He does.

Shifting gears here. Misty Creek and Elizabeth’s Journey have the most wonderful fans. I cannot say how touched this man of modest talent is by the comments I have received. Over and again I have been told how much you have enjoyed these books. The fans of these stories are what pushes me to strive for the very best that I can do. Just the other day someone called to share how much she enjoyed Elizabeth’s Journey. Calls or letters or E-mails like that humble me. I thank God that He has given me this talent, and the determination that keep my fingers, as clumsy as they are, driven to continue.

So as we come to this month few of us will ever forget, know as the days grow longer we will overcome this challenge. Stay safe and well my friends.

Again thank you my friends.

With God’s blessings, Christ’s love, and Holy Spirit’s comfort,

John

Unfinished Tapestry

Unfinished Tapestry          

By John W. Vander Velden

There are times when I look back over the years of my life. I sometimes consider the life I have lived as some intricate piece of fabric...a tapestry perhaps...yet unfinished. So as I think on this I understand that loom continues to work each day, contributing cords old and new to the tapestry which is my life. So I must thank the Lord of the Loom, God, Master of the Universe, Master of my life, for the careful selections of the cords, the strands that come together and make my life. I thank God, not because my tapestry is only bindings of joyful experiences, for it is not. I thank God because even during the most difficult, dark portions of my fabric, even during illness, and pain, even during loss and failure, the loom continues. Thread by thread, cord by cord, line by line, my God has always been there, even those days I do not notice His presence.

Today as I look back upon the fabric of my life, I clearly see an abrupt change. For thirty-one years ago many new cords were added. Strands that twist and flow through each part of my tapestry since that day. Those strands add color. They add strength. They add purpose. They add to me! Who could have foreseen it? Who knew how much events of that day would add to my tapestry? I am confident that the Lord of the Loom knew, and among all that I have to thank God for, which is a grand quantity, I thank him for bringing my beloved into my life and twisting the strands of her tapestry with mine.

So I understand that my tapestry remains incomplete. It will not be finished until the Lord of the Loom stitches the final cords. He will decide if, in the end, my life was good. But I strive to take the cords I have been given, to use them as best as I am able, for I have some influence over how my tapestry grows. For you see the Lord of the Loom gives me freedom to choose. To pick up strands, to lay others aside, a power to shape my life day by day. And yet the loom moves, the tapestry grows.

I thank the fact my tapestry is yet incomplete. I thank my God that opportunities yet lay ahead of me. I thank Jackie for selflessly binding her life with mine thirty- one years ago and each day since.

So I continue to look forward to adding threads to my unfinished tapestry. 

(427 Words) 3-17-2020