Noonday Notes

Issue No. 45

May 1st, 2026

This week I’ve been thinking about weaving. It started with a conversation on Sunday with Sarah from The Impact Guild. We talked about how weaving is found in nature and community, the way an introduction to one person can turn into all these other connection points, braiding together a tapestry of community. How root systems do this too.

On the farm this week we harvested garlic that was planted in November (read about that here), and pulled the broccoli after we lost the harlequin bug battle. After the rain this weekend we will prepare those beds and others for our summer crops of sweet potatoes, cowpeas, okra, and malabar spinach. That’s farming. Out with the old, in with the new. Over and under. Like threads crossing.

In weaving, the warp thread is pulled tight, held in place vertically. And the weft is the thread that moves, passing over and under, again and again. Nothing becomes fabric without both. Weaving requires tension, if threads aren’t held tight the whole thing falls apart. It only holds because of the back and forth, passing through again and again.

Last Sunday, Pastor Joel gave us an introduction into Exodus as we are about to take a deep dive into this book at Grace. Exodus is full of movement and wandering, provision and deliverance. Through Moses, God leads His people out of bondage, and begins to reveal a pattern. Not a one-time act, but a thread that continues. A promise that there would one day be a greater deliverer who would lead his people not just out of Egypt, but into true and lasting freedom. And through the ups and downs, God’s vertical thread remains steady, never departing.

“The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from the people.” (Exodus 13: 21-22 ESV)

God is not just a moment of rescue, He is and always will be a steady presence, leading and guiding. Allowing us to travel our lives during darkness at night and under protection by day, with us through our own ups and downs. We may come to the end of a thread, needing to tie in more cordage. We may not know or understand what is being woven. We may grumble in the wilderness of our lives, exhausted by the back and forth, up and down trials.

It can be hard as a tiny thread in a vast universe, but no single thread carries the whole thing. It’s together, that what we make holds. Whether it’s soil or community. A grand tapestry is being woven, your thread matters.

Read the rest of the newsletter here.