LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Tapestries Woven by God
The life of God's children can be compared to a tapestry woven by God. In that tapestry there is a design, there are shapes, colors, threads that intertwine to form a finished and perfect whole.
In the lives of the three greatest apostles - Peter, Paul, and John - we can see this design. Many of the things that happened in their lives surely had no explanation at the present moment, but later they could see God's reasons. They were all intended to break them so that they would become vessels "prepared for every good work", and express the character of their Master.
Peter, the fisher of men, was the one who first cast the nets to catch men for the Kingdom. Peter was marked by the revelation at Caesarea Philippi, concerning Jesus, as "the Christ, the Son of the living God". This revelation was to be the foundation on which the church was to be built. Peter was a stone, but this revelation of Jesus Christ was the Rock, that is, the Christ revealed by the Father. Later, in his first epistle, Peter will refer to this very thing when he says: "Coming unto him a living stone ... ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and a holy priesthood..." (1 Pet. 2:4-5).
As to his character, being by nature impulsive and vehement, master of his will, at the hour of his death he had to yield his will to others, according to the Lord's words to him: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast younger, thou girdedst thyself, and wentest whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. This he said, signifying by what death he would glorify God" (John 21:18-19).
In Paul, the tentmaker called to build the church of God, we see how the persecutor and jailer of Christians himself came to be persecuted and imprisoned many times. His last days were spent in prison, where he received and wrote the greatest revelations given to him. From there he wrote to Timothy, already old and probably ill, to come to him with haste, hopefully before winter (2 Tim. 4:9, 21).
The apostle John was the youngest of the Twelve, and yet he became the oldest. Having been of wrathful character ("Son of thunder"), he was transformed into the most delicate and tender of all. His best pages were devoted to writing about love. He is the only one of the apostles to use the word "friends" (3 John 15), heard for the first time as he lay upon the Lord that sad night (John 15:14-15). As a restorer ("mending the nets" when he was called), John laid again the first foundation of the church, both in his Gospel and in his epistles, especially the first, which is the revelation of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.
Three lives perfectly woven, harmonized, by God. Many times, in the present we do not see God's design, we see only stitches, cut threads, unconnected traces. But the seasoned, masterful Weaver knows what he is doing.