Measuring the Invisible

Okay, another sewing story...

It was Saturday evening, and I was in the middle of another project. I decided to stay up later than usual, hoping to get as much accomplished as possible—cutting, measuring, sewing, ripping, sewing again. The most unpleasant part is what my family calls the frog stitch, or ripping the thread when I make a mistake. Rip-pit. Rip-pit. Rip-pit.

This evening, I was doing many frog stitches.

After a few hours, I decided to put a pause on my project. But before I went to bed, I at least measured and marked my fabric so in the morning all I’d have to do is cut. Easy. I tediously measured, making sure my marks were consistent and in all the right places. Then I went to bed.

Sunday afternoon, I looked forward to resuming my sewing. I had left everything as it was. All the fabric was straight, but something was wrong. My markings were gone. In a moment I realized my mistake. I had used invisible ink. Generally the marks disappear after 24 hours so that the fabric is not stained. The pen is usually a very handy tool. But not in this case.

I felt so foolish. Why did I not think of this? It’s not the worst thing in the world. I’d just have to re-measure and re-mark. But all the time I wasted for something that would disappear!

Naturally, I couldn’t help but think of all we strive and work and toil for that in end amounts to nothing. I thought of Jesus’ parable of the rich fool, who saw that his land yielded an abundant harvest (Lk. 12). “What shall I do?” he asked himself. “I have no place to store my crops.” Then he had an idea. He would tear down his barns and build bigger ones, and there store his surplus grain. “I’ll have plenty laid up for years,” he thought. “I’ll take life easy, eat, drink, and be merry. No worries.” Little did he know that that very night his life would be demanded from him.

The moral? As Jesus said, “Watch out, and be on your guard. Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions. Don’t be rich toward yourself and not rich toward God. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Your heavenly Father knows what you need. Don’t worry, and seek first His kingdom.”

What am I building? What am I investing in? We measure and measure and measure and mark and don’t realize it’s invisible ink until it’s too late. We think we’re planning ahead, not knowing it will disappear, literally overnight.

This isn’t supposed to be discouraging. The point is not that everything is meaningless or that we should just not invest at all but invest in what is right and what will last. The future isn’t bleak if we plan for it properly.

Let’s build well, and build what will endure. Let’s measure right the first time, so we don’t get to heaven and find out we were measuring the invisible.