Life is Like a Ball of Yarn...

Life is Like a Ball of Yarn….

The more days I live, the more I begin to feel that rather than a puzzle, pieced together in perfect pattern, albeit in any possible random order, life is more an unraveling and a revealing, rather like a ball of my mother’s left-over yarn, pieced together in un-matched joining and multi-colored mating, to be unwound slowly and revealingly when knitted together in a fine mitten or scarf. 

The truth of the knitting’s color scheme won’t be known until Mama has finished her last knit, pearl, stitch….but, the more the yarn gives way to the needle’s story, the more the final piece is evident.  It is when done, you glimpse the truth of the color of her piece. 

That truth is always rock solid in the center of the yarn-ball, but in the unraveling becomes alive.   

To me, this is much the way of life.  We are little pieces of yarn, fashioned together and knitted from pieces of our family’s skein which is joined together to form the work of art of us.  Mama’s soft pink lacy cut, with Daddy’s navy worsted twist, a part Granny’s fingerling and a length of Grandpa’s bulky weight all joined together to make me.

I have this vision of God and me, sitting together around the fireplace in my kitchen.  I am sitting at the table and God is standing behind me.  We are posed over two extravagantly beautiful knitting needles…my hands up close to the milky white of the ivory needles (mine are ivory not steel) and God’s hands placed over mine in teaching expression. 

We are there to knit my life together.  God shows me how to fashion the yarn on the needles to get started.  We’ve already made our yarn ball and are ready to set the slip knot on the needle.  The slip knot is the foundational knot for the entire piece of me.  Next, we move into the cast phase, which is really the backbone for my entire life.  This cast can be as short or as long as God would choose and as I am gifted.  Once the cast is set and the length determined, then we move to our first knit stitch. 

The casting phase is critical to life because it sets the foundation for all which is to come.  That is why legacy in life is so important.  The stronger our familial heritage, the stronger our cast.  The more aligned and strong and straight our cast, the stronger the base of our whole knitted piece.  The cast is what my family gives to my life….I am the knitted stitches. 

I envision God telling me this as He quietly whispers to me to “stop” at a certain point in my cast.  I don’t want to count the actual casting because then I would know the length of my days…and, it is not that I should know, but rather that I should move to the next phase…knitting the stitches. 

There are several stitches I could choose from, but as a novice, I am directed to the knit stitch.  It is the simplest and easiest to learn….my hand moves back and forth, filling one needle while emptying another.  Quickly, the form of my life grows. 

I am a novice knitter, it is apparent from my alternatingly tight and then lose stitches, but I am assured that over time, I will grow more consistent. 

This knitting takes time.

 

It takes patience. 

Slowly, almost painstakingly, I  form one stitch at a time, feeling awkward and disjointed….I can see the yarn ball unraveling into the work on my needles and the colors start to tell a story…. 

My story 

Told with simple stitches in simple pattern with simple hands using simple needles. 

Then I hear the words, “it is time”… 

Time to learn a new stitch… 

The Purl… 

Both stitches are a part of good knitting, both have a specific purpose.  One is worked at the back of the knitting, one is worked at the front.  Both form unique patterns in a knitter’s piece of work.  When used together, the knit and the purl, that is what forms the lovely patterns of a scarf or a sweater or  

Me 

Knit stitches tend to be smooth and flat.  Purl tend to be bulkier and uplifted.  Like seasons in a person’s life. 

We knit together, God and I, in the quiet of my kitchen.  Back and forth, back and forth….and then it happens.  In what is a simple, modest pattern, a twisted piece is found.

We stop, undo the stitches back to the most recent whole stitch and then start again, error corrected. 

Back and forth, you can hear the clicking of ivory upon ivory…God’s warm hands on mine…

Knitting… 

I don’t know when His hands leave mine…but, after a time, I begin to see knotted, mangled stitches form on my work….large balls of yarn, tight stitches blend with too loose stitches and my knitting….my life is a mess. 

Where are those guiding hands?  The Master knitter’s leading gone, I had not been able to keep the pace of fine knitting. 

He asks me…what do you do now? 

I am frozen….I don’t know.  How do I repair such a mess as this?

“You know what to do….think on it.” He says. 

Slowly, painfully, I undo each ugly stitch taking my work all the way back to the most recent beautiful stitch.  It was a painful undoing…so much work lost.  So hard to start those stitches over. 

“Why did you leave me?” I ask 

“I never left you, I was here. Always by your side…but, you went on without me…never noticing my absent hands…focused on your stitching and not on my leading.”

It’s true.  I did that. 

Grateful I am as He places large, warm hands over mine, giving strength to my re-knitting….stitches back in place, needles making soft noise as we work together on the frame of my life. 

Knitting is not an art of perfection.  It is a part of the Master’s plan.  He does not call us to knit our lives perfectly.  He calls us to keep His hands on ours as we piece together the framework of our lives in the masterpiece He has designed.

My final piece will not be without the evidence of flaws….it will not be of perfect color and evenly matched stitches.  In fact, I am quite certain, it may not even be lovely in the eyes of the world. 

But, my final piece….the blanket of my life….will bear the stitches of one who has tried hard to keep the Master’s hands on hers while the knitting is done… 

And, in God’s eyes, it will be beautiful….I will be beautiful. 

At the end of the day, as my final stitch is cast and I lay my needles down, it is only his eyes which will matter. 

Blessings,

Lesa