I’m not sure precisely when I learned to knit, or why… but early in my college life, on one of my visits back to Wheaton, Illinois, I got enough training to be dangerous. It happened at a local knitting shop, which propelled me. I was armed with two very large plastic needles and a connection to an individual in the shop who could get me started and who could effectively terminate my activity. Yes, I never learned to start or stop a knitting project. (My face is a little flushed right now for a variety of reasons.)
I was a one-trick pony… scarfs.
My apologies to anyone on my gift list at that point in time because there was little mystery in the gifting.
By the middle of my sophomore year at Taylor University, I met and started dating Mary. She was a year younger, from Indianapolis, and quickly became a great friend and a trusted companion. By Christmas of 1975 I was contemplating the appropriate gift(s) for this young woman and voila – the idea of the best scarf I had ever made came to mind.
I bought high quality yarn, I got my starting rows established at my local shop, and I began this labor of love. It turned out to be a very, very long labor of love. Not in duration but in literal length. I simply couldn’t stop as each new row seemed to express my admiration and captivation for this 19-year-old.
Mission accomplished. Scarf completed and wrapped and delivered. And yes, Mary was completely surprised… but perhaps mostly because she now had a scarf that could fully surround her… no, literally. If she wrapped it around her beautiful neck it would still hang down at wildly non-fashionable levels. If she happened to be wearing it in a windstorm, it would harass and potentially injure those that were close by.
If it was the thought that counts, then I got extra credit.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)
Actually, it turns out that knitting was God’s idea. His were the first needles to create. He needed no help from a local shop… and what He created was beautiful and unique, and perfectly created to serve the purpose God had planned.
On Monday, Mary celebrates a birthday. It’s a big one. Both numbers flip on this one.
What I’ve come to realize is that when God was knitting this tiny baby together in the womb of Eunice Cargo in 1956… He was knitting me a scarf. Yes, God knew perfectly well just how to carefully, functionally, creatively and beautifully craft this masterpiece. And the knitting wasn’t just for me. It warmed a whole host of others.
Knit together. As a way to show His love. As a gift.
Happy Birthday, Mary. You were indeed knit together. For good. For grace. For joy and laughter and adventure… for the purposes and plans of God.
Knitting needles in the hands of the Creator. My perfect scarf.
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created (i.e. knitted together) us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things (i.e. be the perfect scarf!) he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10)
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