Knit My Life

by Peggy Brown

One of my new projects is knitting. Currently I am knitting a hat for my great-niece, Kailynn, for Christmas. She is the one whose picture was on my blog last Monday! She’s a sweetie! I have spent several hours on this hat (I’m still a beginnger so I go slowly) and it’s turning out sooo cute!

I’ll admit, though, that I have had several setbacks as I knitted, requiring that I take out 2 or 3 rows and re-knit them. Last night I was ready to scream with frustration, but then I finally figured out what I was doing wrong and was able to fix it. Then, today, after I’d knitted for a couple of hours, I discovered that I had misread the pattern and had knitted over 200 rows where I only needed 50! I just tore it out and started over. I was discouraged, to say the least.

When Kailynn gets her hat, she will never know the hours (yes, some unnecessary) of work have gone into it. She will just see the finished product, a cute little hat with a flower on it that she can wear to keep her head warm. She won’t see the sacrifice of my time that went into making it so that it only covers the top of her head and not come down to her shoulders! People who see it on her won’t know that I had so many “issues” getting to the finished product.

I confess that I don’t have that same determination in my Faith walk as I have in my knitting. When things don’t go as I think they should (doesn’t God have the pattern?) or when it seems like I just can’t get victory over some sin in my life, I want to give up. I don’t readily “tear out” the mistake and “start over” at the beginning.

What I forget often is God’s perspective. God has the finished project (me) in His heart. As He works in my life to create that project, I am beautiful in His eyes, and my life will be beautiful to those who see it. The process is designed to bring glory to Him! From the outside, no one will see all the stitches that have been torn out and reworked. Unlike the hat which people will see as a finished product, my life is only seen as a work in progress.

Sometimes we forget to be transparent with one another about the process. We forget that the process God is taking us through encourages other people. When other believers just see us from the outside, it can seem like we have it all together and that we have no “stitches” that are being reworked. I had a friend tell me once that she couldn’t share a problem with a certain person because “she doesn’t have any problems so she wouldn’t understand.” The trouble wasn’t that she had no problems, but that she never talked about what God was working out in her life.

All of this is done in the context of relationships. We women are relational creatures (just ask Sue Donaldson!). We need one another to share with and be encouraged by. Other women are waiting to hear that it is OK to struggle, that God is the master knitter! Sometimes they need to hear that there are some stitches that need to be worked on, too. The end result is that God will be glorified!

Phil. 1:6
“being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Lord, master knitter, I ask that You would make me a willing project. Open my heart to be willingly transparent before others. Let the flaws in my life be the things that bring glory to You. I praise You that you have promised to continue to work on me until I am a completed project on the day of Christ Jesus. Amen.