Knitting for Souls

A boy was asked by his grandmother to unravel some used wool she had. Naturally this was not the most exciting thing a boy could do but he did as he was told. He had never taken notice of his grandmother knitting before and so curiosity getting the better of him, he started asking questions as to why he had to unravel the wool, what was it going to be used for? The grandmother, seeing her opportunity to share the Word motioned him to sit next to her and asked him: “Would you like to learn?”.

“You see my boy, when we live in sin; we are like the tangled ball of wool. We have no direction, no use or purpose. But even as the tangled ball of wool, all of us, with the help and grace of God, have the potential to become something great.”

“Let me show you”, the grandmother said as she picked up her knitting needles. “I am tying the wool to one knitting needle, this is when we grab hold of Jesus!” the grandmother said. “So Jesus is like the knitting needles grandma?” the boy asked. “Yes my child and God’s hands are using the knitting needles to sculpt us in His image. Here you try and tie the wool to the needle.”. “It’s not easy grandma.” The boy said as he struggled to tie a knot. “For some people it is easier but for some of us we need some help.” The grandmother said.

“But nothing is happening Grandma, the needles aren’t doing anything.”

“That’s because grabbing a hold of Jesus is only the beginning, we have to move.” The grandmother replied.

So the grandmother started casting on stitches. The boy, watching in amazement asked: “Why are you just putting loops on one needle grandma.”

The grandmother answered, “Because I have to have a foundation before we can start to knit. So too we must have a foundation in Jesus before God can make something special of us.”

The grandmother started to knit and after a while the boy grew restless. He did not know what his grandmother was knitting. In his mind all this work was boring and useless. So he asked: “Grandma, what are you making?

“A sweater” she gently replied. “But how do you know it’s a sweater, it doesn’t look like one?” The boy asked.

“It won’t be a sweater overnight but I have a pattern I use, it tells me what I must and mustn’t do. The pattern is like the bible; it tells us what to do and what not to do. We may not immediately be able to see what all this hard work is bringing us, but this is where we have faith, that if we follow the instructions we will end up with something special in the end.”

Content with the answer, the boy watched as his grandma continued to knit, the stitches getting longer and longer. The boy noticed that not all the stitching was the same so he asked her, “Grandma why is the stitching different ?”

“It’s all part of making the sweater special.” She replied. “God also doesn’t keep things the same in our lives, we may start out as a simple stitch, but God brings trials and miracles in our lives and he changes situations and ourselves to make us better, to make us special.”

“Are those holes part of the changes?” the boy asked as he pointed.

The grandmother looked down and saw that she had lost a few stitches. She had been so occupied with the boy that she didn’t even notice. “No my boy, those are mistakes I’ve made.” She answered.

“So are you going to cut the wool and throw it away or can the mistakes can be fixed?” he asked.

To show him, the grandmother unraveled her last stitches and began again. “Amazing !!!” the enthusiastic boy shouted.

The grandmother told him: “What is truly amazing is that God can do the same in our lives. Everything may be going well but now and again we are going to make mistakes. Mistakes we think we cannot fix, so we just cut ourselves off and throw ourselves away. With Jesus’ help though, we can fix it. It’s not easy and we might have to unravel a lot of our hard work but it can be done as long as we focused on the end result.”

A few days had passed and the grandmother had finished the sweater.

It was a cold morning when the boy was about to go to school. His grandmother greeted him with a hug. Feeling that he was cold she went to fetch the sweater she had completed. “Is it mine?” he asked. “Yes”, she replied and he grinned from side to side as the sweater brought a warm feeling all over him as he put it on.

Knowing his grandmother, the boy raised one eyebrow and asked: “Sooooo, what does God have to do with this!”

The grandmother laughed and said: “You see my boy, God and Jesus keep working on us until one day we are ready. So that we too may work hard and use what was given to us to help others have the same warm feeling you have right now. I have taught you to knit your life according to God’s plan for you, so that one day you may teach someone else!”

The boy did not understand all of what his grandma had taught him but a seed was planted. He could not wait to show all of his friends his special sweater, and share with them the story of how the sweater and how we are made.