Patchwork of Life

Life is a journey we travel
filled with surprises, challenges, joys and sorrows.
Some of these we’d like to experience
in greater measure,
others we would rather avoid completely.
But each experience holds its own treasure
which, when seen together, in the end,
forms a patchwork, the patchwork of our life.

If we can embrace each experience, its joy or its pain,
and hold it up to God; if we can say,
“Lord, give me grace to walk this part of the journey.
Help me to feel the love, the joy, the pain,
the emptiness, or the loneliness, and grow through it.
Give me the wisdom to make right choices along the way,
and ears to hear your voice when I walk, or even stray -
To hear you say, “This is the way”,
and to alter my course accordingly”.

Then, as we complete each section of our journey,
we will have learned well
the lessons life has brought to us, and be enriched.
As we hold them before the Lord with thankfulness,
we will be ready to share the wisdom we’ve gained
with others, to help them complete their journey
through the patchwork of life.
Then nothing will be wasted.