The Great Unraveling

by Debbie Allen

“Beautiful things come together one stitch at a time.”

 My Junior High, Home Economics teacher, Ms. Dee, repeated this catchy phrase to my 8^th grade sewing class every morning for an entire semester. Yes…every single day that classroom swelled with the groans and sighs of teenagers, cringing at the dreaded sounds of those words filtering through our ears one more time. Despite constant opposition, Ms. Dee continued sowing her repetitious jingle into our minds, hoping that someday it might take root in our hearts.   But, our restless, teenaged, know-it-all ways, prevented most of us from grasping what Ms. Dee was determined to instill in each of us. Her simple, sewing truth:

‘If we took our time, followed all her tried-and-true guidelines and instructions… if we pressed-on one stitch at a time; then the end result always guaranteed us something beautiful in hand.’

A few students caught on to the beauty of her teaching; and sailed through their sewing projects to the finish line. Others of us, however, learned a brand-new lesson the hard way: ‘If we strayed, we paid!’

I, unfortunately, was one of those students who strayed, and paid.  Though it was anything but typical for me to behave in such a manner; the thought of falling behind on my sewing project and nearing the deadline for its completion, pressured me into thinking I had no choice but, to take things into my own hands.  I ignored the teachings of the sewing truth and replaced it with my only solution.  Cutting corners.  So much for Ms. Dee’s one-stitch-at-a-time theory. I stayed after school every night and went in early every morning, sewing fast and furious all the way! If sewing machines had tailpipes, mine would’ve been smoking! Needing to save time, I skipped over most of Ms. Dee’s guidelines, including tying knots in all the loose ends I’d cut; in every section being sewn together.

“After all,” I thought to myself, “who’s going to see it on the underside anyway?”

At the end of my marathon sewing sessions, I turned the jumper I’d made in to Ms. Dee on time; more than glad to be done with it!

The very next day, Ms. Dee called me up to her desk and told me I’d received an “A” on my jumper. I r-e-a-l-l-y couldn’t believe it; in light of the shady sewing tactics, I’d defaulted to.  I breathed a sigh of relief; thinking I’d gotten away with my bad choices and figured life would go back to normal.  That’s when I heard Ms. Dee make an unexpected announcement to our class. Every word of it filled me with dread and kept me tossing and turning every night for the rest of that week. 

“Class…as a reward for all your hard work, each of you are going to have an opportunity to model the piece of clothing you made for yourselves; in the auditorium, before your classmates and parents; at the first Junior High School Fashion Show ever!”

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“Beautiful things come together one-stitch-at-a-time …but, when you stray you pay.”

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The day of the fashion show, the words that pursued our class for an entire semester were now displayed on a banner stretched across the length of the stage: “Beautiful things come together one-stitch-at a-time.”

Most of the students who walked out and stood under those words, did so with great pride and a clear conscience. I felt as though I should’ve been standing under a banner all my own. One that read: “When You Stray, You Pay!”

Hearing Mrs. Dee call my name at the fashion show, I walked out onto the auditorium stage mortified; convinced that any minute all the loose threads I’d cut and left untied throughout my jumper were going to unravel and fall to pieces on the stage floor, while the whole world watched!  I flattened my boney, elbows so tightly down against my dress to help hold it together, my ribs hurt for two days afterwards!  It wasn’t the reward I was looking for.

The greatest reward I received at the Fashion Show that day wasn’t the applause or even the fact that the unraveling pieces of my jumper didn’t fall from my limbs after all. No…as I stood, trembling, beneath Ms. Dee’s sewing truth, my know-it-all, teenage heart finally grasped the reality of the dire consequences that are guaranteed to follow; when you replace truth meant for your own good; with your own misguided ways of thinking.

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“God’s ‘Banner of Truth’ remains hanging over us, regardless of the choices we choose to make.”

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 After the fashion show that day, I scurried home and hung that infamous jumper, front-and-center in my closet; where it remained for many years. I left it turned inside-out; as a visual reminder to my heart of the day of The Great Unraveling…not only for a dress but, for a young teenage girl.

Though this story wasn’t one of my finest moments in life, I share it with you because it still speaks volumes about how each of us are called to live our lives before our Heavenly Father. We are given the opportunity to walk one-step-at-a-time, drawing our instruction and directions from God’s Word. If we let Him teach us, His Word instills Wisdom in our minds—acting as a lamplight to guide us on the pathways of our life. His Banner of Truth hangs over all of us, regardless of our choices. 

This world is our stage and the way we walk beneath His Banner of Truth matters more than you can ever imagine.  There will come a day when God calls your name, Will you walk out and stand beneath His Banner of Truth with unbridled joy, knowing His Word lives inside of you, and your faithfulness to model His Son on earth are His Greatest Joy?    Or will you be the self-guided one filled with regret, who traded away God’s Wisdom for folly, and modeled your own mis-guided ways before a watching world? And when your life came apart at the seams, you realized far too late:

“When you stray from God’s Truth and Guidelines for living life… you pay with your own soul for all Eternity!”

Heavenly Father Above, forgive us for bending Your beautiful Truths and for exchanging them for our own ways. Our world is full of Truth Benders. But, when the untied threads of our earthly lives begin to unravel—we feel the error of our own ways.  Our feeble hearts pound and our spirits reel at the thought of having made so many wrong choices in life, even though deep down, we knew better. Lord, hear our desperate cries.  Strengthen our hearts and keep us from yielding to the world’s mis-guided ways of thinking. Enable Your children to stand strong in this next year, under Your ‘Banner of Truth’. For we are not capable of piecing our own lives back together without Your Truth…Your Wisdom…and Your Perfect Guidance!   We Love You, LORD! IN JESUS NAME…AMEN