Unwrapped

I recently got to tie-dye with some friends. Besides having feet and hands a bit stained, the dying went well. It was so amazing watching the fabric soak up the dye. Then, we had to practice our patience as we let everything sit over night. The next evening, I pulled out the first t-shirt. It was bound still with twine and rubber bands. I rinsed and some of the die came out. Then, after doing the rinse ring cycle several times, it was time to cut away the rubber bands and twine. I was a little nervous doing this. The colors on the outside were really strong and vibrant. But, as I imagined a whole shirt looking like this, I wondered if it would just be a mess of brown on the inside. Starting at one end and moving toward the other, each little binder came off. Much to my amazement and delight, beautiful patterns emerged and the color combinations came together in expected and unexpected ways. Standing out in the grass under the big tree in the front yard, I thought about how we are much the same way. We get bound up and wrapped up in different things, people, events, activities. Our life gets filled up with colorful memories and actions. Even when it is full of good things, the colors on the outside may seem to bright, too much. Eventually, we get so wrapped up that it just looks like one great big color blob on the outside. But then, God unwraps the bindings. Underneath, and in-between the areas where we think that there is just going to a brown muck, there is instead colors and patterns, blending and swirling in unexpected ways.