On Knitting and the Church

So looking back over my last few posts, I realize I've been very dismal in my outlook on this blog.  Don't get me wrong, these posts have been genuine thoughts I've had, but I suppose I've only posted when my thoughts were, well, dismal.  I assure you I'm not as without hope as my blog would lead you to believe.  I've always got hope that God can change the situations and issues that I've complained about.  After all, which is more powerful, God or culture?  I submit it is the former.

In any case, this post is not dismal.  It is actually something that's struck me over the past few months as I've been learning to knit.  Okay, before you start doubting my manhood, I'm knitting a Doctor Who scarf.  The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) always wore a looooooong scarf, and I thought it would be cool to have one.  However, the internet failed me on this one and I decided it would be easier and cheaper to make my own scarf.  This proved to be untrue, but as I'd already started on the thing, I'm going to see it through to its completion.  So rather than doubting my manhood, be impressed at my nerdiness ... if that's any better.

Anyhow, as I've been knitting, it's really struck me just how ingenious knitting is.  I mean here you take a strand of yarn, loop it around itself a few times, and you get fabric (in my case, a scarf).  It's really amazing how taking something like yarn and organizing it into a structure changes its properties.  All of a sudden, the yarn is stronger, stretchier, warmer, etc.  You've not chemically changed the yarn, but just reorganized it.  Amazing, really.  Whoever came up with knitting, my hats off to them.  Truly an under-appreciated genius.

And then I started thinking of how knitting is kind of what the Holy Spirit does in the church.  (Yes, I'm hopelessly a Lutheran pastor [in training].  Deal with it.)  One strand of yarn can be broken pretty easily by me pulling on it.  But my scarf cannot.  One strand of yarn isn't very stretchy, but my scarf is.  One strand of yarn has very limited usage, but my scarf has a number of uses.  In the same way, one Christian by himself is easy to break, unable to be stretched and has a limited number of uses.  But when that Christian is woven into the Church by the Holy Spirit, there's no end to what can be done.  For the Church is strong, flexible, and quite useful.  I could go on with the analogy, but I think you get the point.  Whoever came up with knitting: a freakin' genius! ;-)