Knit together

Tuesday Steve decided to do something different to relax. He pulled out a crochet hook and proceeded to start making a hat. He had learned from his mom and grandma how to crochet when he was younger, and had looked up a pattern online for making a hat. Intrigued, Natalia and I also wanted to learn. So we pulled out some more crochet hooks from our craft supplies and some yarn. Steve patiently showed us how to start the hat, talking through each stitch to get us started. Then he let us go so he could work on his hat. I had crocheted once before, about 10 years ago, and had made a scarf. I assumed I could figure it out. I got going on a roll and just went to town...mostly doing my own thing...Later that night I worked on my hat some more, but it didn't quite look right. I thought I was doing everything correctly. I mean, I had watched Steve carefully for how to do each stitch. Still, the stitched felt awkward, and they didn't look anything like the hat Steve was popping out. Anyway, I perservered, until about half way through I realized I was doing the stitches all wrong. I finally took the time and patience to try out a few different ways to hook the yarn and voila! The stitches started to look right and they were REALLY easy to do. So I kept going, adding more and more rows, all the while thinking in my head, "maybe I should take the stitches out and start over." But no! That would be ridiculous! Take out what I already did!!??!?! And waste all that time I spent constructing my hat?!? Afterall, even though the stitches weren't done correctly, it gave the hat character, right? Wrong. The hat looked horrible. It was lumpy and uneven and puckered at the top. (See picture)

And that's when I realized I needed to suck up my pride and take all the stitches out and start over. As I began ripping out my work, the Lord started to speak to me about life. Our lives are also being knit together. King David states in Psalm 139:13, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb." Since the day we are born, we are also knitting together who we are. We knit into our lives ideas about who we are, how the world works, and who God is. What we knit into our lives determines our shape and function. When we try to knit life our own way, we make up stitches, whatever feels right at the time. It is by pure "instinct". But the resulting design can be lumpy, bumpy, and totally unusable for the original function. When we look to God, the master knitter, He gives us the specific pattern for what our life should look like and how to make each stitch.  If we have the patience to listen and learn the stitches at the beginning, the resulting design is easy to make and so much more enjoyable to work with. If we chose to ignore this design and keep on doing things out own way, we may eventually realize the truth, but this results in having to remove stitches. Hopefully we will listen early and catch the mistake in our thinking and acting before too many rows have been stitched. If not, we have to take out many more rows instead of just a few stitches. See also Jeremiah 18. The picture below is after I ripped out most of the stitches and started over again.