Ravi Zacharias shared a story about visiting a site known for making the highest quality wedding saris in the world. His account reminds me that God’s child can trust the Father for He has a plan for creating beauty and purpose from even heartache and sadness. Any hope perceived is based on the fact that God is trustworthy.
Ravi shared, “With such intricacy of detail I expected to see some elaborate system of machines that would boggle the mind in production. But this image could not have been further from the real scene. Each sari was made individually by a father and son team.
The father sat above the son on a platform surrounded by several spools of thread that he would gather into his fingers. The son had only one task. At a nod from his father he would move the shuttle from one side to the other and back again. This would then be repeated for hundreds of hours until a magnificent pattern began to emerge….
The son certainly had the easier task. He was only to move at the father’s nod. But making use of these efforts, the father was working to an intricate end. All along he had the design in his mind and was bringing the right threads together….
God alone can weave a pattern from the disparate threads of our lives – whether suffering, success, joy, or heartache – and fashion a magnificent design. Perhaps today if you will stop and reflect on it, you will see that the Father is seeking to weave a beautiful tapestry in your life.”
I gain hope from Ravi’s account. It reminds me that Father God is the Master Designer. It challenges me to trust my Father enough to follow His leading. Then He will accomplish a work of beauty and purpose with my life. That truly gives me reason to be hopeful!
“For we know all things work together for good to those who love the Lord, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8: 28)
“Let me hear Your lovingkindness in the morning; For I trust in You; Teach me the way in which I should walk; For to You I lift up my soul.” (Psalm 142: 8)
A forty-year birthday marks a milestone that I can hardly believe my son has reached. It does not mean that he is old or “over the hill” as some say — but perhaps it does indicate that his parents are!
How well I remember his birth as a time of joy, hope, thankfulness, and with prayers for him and his future. Having him as a son still fills me with the same feelings of joy, hope, and thankfulness. I continue to pray for him, his future, and his beautiful family with whom he is blessed.
So many prayers have been answered along his life’s journey so far. I have experienced exceeding parental pride through these 40 years. I have loved watching his gift of encouragement impact others. I have learned the value of wisdom for his life perhaps through recognizing its need in my own.
Proverbs, a book of Wisdom, is a good reference for living well. It offers wisdom for all generations — mine, my son’s, and his child’s. It offers hope that all of us need at every age of life.
Today my prayer is for my son to always know God’s Wisdom and Hope. They are found in the Bible and can be easily instilled in the head by reading. They can only be deeply ingrained in the heart by God’s Holy Spirit. They are worth the sacrifice of time and study.
Happy birthday, my beloved son! May your life be full of Wisdom and Hope always!
“My son, do not forget my teaching,
But let your heart keep my commandments;
For length of days and years of life
And peace they will add to you.
Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good repute
In the sight of God and man.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones.
Honor the Lord from your wealth, and from the first of all your produce;
So your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine.
My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe His reproof,
For whom the Lord loves He reproves,
Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
How blessed is the man who finds wisdom
and the man who gains understanding.
For her profit is better than the profit of silver and her gain better than fine gold.
She is more precious than jewels; And nothing you desire compares with her.
Long life is in her right hand; In her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.
She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, and happy are all who hold her fast.
The Lord by wisdom founded the earth, By understanding He established the heavens.
By His knowledge the deeps were broken up, and the skies drip with dew.
My son, let them not vanish from your sight;
Keep sound wisdom and discretion,
So they will be life to your soul and adornment to your neck.
Then you will walk in your way securely, and your foot will not stumble.
When you lie down, you will not be afraid; When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.” (Proverbs 3: 1 – 24)
I want to introduce readers to ROOTS, an important book about leaving a life of crime by Marie Louise Toksvig. It is Nedim Yasar’s personal memoirs….
Nedim Yasar was born in Turkey, moved to Denmark at age four, and grew up to be the subject of this book. His story is not ordinary, because he also grew up to become leader of Los Guerreros, a notorious gang heavily involved with the drug trade and related crimes, including violence, robbery, and blackmail.
In 2012 a major turning point in Vasar’s life contributed to his story becoming even more extraordinary. He made a decision to end his gang affiliation when he learned he was going to become a father.
After participating in a successful exit program in Copenhagen, he dedicated himself to help steer others away from gang life. Yasar mentored young people as host of a local Copenhagen radio station and became a respected voice for change.
Then murderers shot and killed 31 year old Yasar in November 2018. This cowardly act just as his book was being released could cause hopelessness, because it appeared that evil had won. Yet I think there is much hope to be found in Yasar’s life-changing decision and dedicated efforts to help young people avoid his previous path.
As his child, a son, grows up, may he be proud of his father and see Nedim Yasar as a courageous hero who took a stand for his son to have a better life. Yasar didn’t choose to “disappear” into anonymity — a much safer choice — but chose to proceed publicly via his radio show, this book, and other meaningful efforts. He must have realized the dangers of sharing his personal story in a public way especially after a previous attempt on his life a year earlier.
Yasar must have had hope that his son will never fall prey to the dangerous hate-filled lifestyle that he had experienced in his own past. Yasar chose hope to change first his own life then modeled hope for his son and other young people.
The hope presented here today is the reality of a changed life. Also I find hope in the fact that hope didn’t end with Yasar’s death. The book, ROOTS, is full of hope and impacts others. The legacy of Nedim Yasar includes countless changed lives. His heritage is a son to follow his determined walk in a different direction toward a better life.
I want to share Nedim Yasar’s story and promote the hope at the heart of his changed life. I believe that his murderers did not win. Nothing can stop real hope. Hope always trumps hate… always.
A quote by holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom comes to mind: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”
