My knitting tattoo, part 1.

When I was a young girl, my great grandmother took it upon herself to teach me how to crochet.

*sigh*

There’s a lot that I could say about living forever, beyond the grave and into glory.  But if you’re looking to live forever here on this earth, then teach someone a craft.  

Not everyone has the crafty, creative gene.  But for those of us who do, oh man… It’s like I’m alivex50 when I’m working with my hands.  My heart enjoys the anticipation of a project coming together.  I feel content when I’m crafting, crocheting included.  My crocheting never really advanced to the most complex stitches.  Instead, I kept my work simple and made lots of clothes for my dolls.

Then when I was a senior in high school, I was invited to join a family for the holidays in Canada.  This family enjoyed the hobby of knitting.  The way that I saw it, if I could work with a ball of yarn and one needle, certainly I could figure out how to work with a ball of yarn and two needles.  I sat in the back of the van with a ball of blue yarn, two new knitting needles and a how-to book on knitting.  By the time we reached Canada, my very first scarf was beginning to take shape.

Wherever I went, my knitting went, too.  I knit in my classes.  I knit when I was stuck in a long checkout line.  And, I’m ashamed to say, I’d even knit and drive at the same time.  (I would steer with my knee.  Terrible, I know.)

Once finished with my humble scarf, I took it upon my 17-year-old self to stitch a little snowflake in the corner.  Eleven years later, I still have my very first scarf:

Perhaps you can identify with this, but I find that when I’m fully immersed in a repetitious behavior, I tend to draw parallels to how such behavior relates to the broader picture of life.

Which is exactly what happened when, a few years later, I stumbled across this verse (pay attention, ’cause this rocked my world):

Psalm 139:13  “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”

The Lord knitted me together?  Hmmm…

In that moment, it felt like I had been hit by a wave of understanding.  All at once my mind began to collect emotional data, comprehending on a more intimate level what a weighty statement that was.  I drew three simple, yet profound conclusions after my musing, my praying and my cross-comparing.

To be continued…