I have been knitting a lot in the past couple of days. My roommate walks in the door and sees me sitting there, watching TV, knitting, with a blanket and 2 dogs on my lap, and laughs at me.

I enjoy knitting because I think that it relaxes me and it is a tangible task that I can see the end result… AND the end result is always something practical. How much better could it get.

When you are knitting, each stitch matters. Each stitch is important to making up the whole item that you are making. If one stitch is wrong, or a different tension than the others, it is noticeable. You can go back and fix most knitting blunders, but it takes time, and often tedious work of the hand and eye.

It got me thinking about the verses in Psalm 139.

“For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.”  – Psalm 139: 13-14

God is a master crafter. He has knit everything together in creation perfectly. But most importantly, he has knit us together perfect. He knew exactly how he wanted us to be before we were born, before we were even thought about here on earth. Every stitch of who we are was carefully knitted together to create his most prized masterpiece.

AND… we’re useful too. He has given us an immense and important job to do. To take care of the Earth that He created, and to tell the world what He has done for us through his son on the cross. Unbelievably in our sin and brokenness he most often chooses to use us to do His work.

God intended his knitted creations to be perfect, but because of sin in the world we sometimes have stitches in our life that are noticeable – to us and often to the people around us. Our crafter never intended this, but they are there. Those pesky little stitches that make it seem like the masterpiece is ruined or that we would never want to show to the rest of the world.

However, like I mentioned above, those stitches can be fixed. It takes time, and is tedious, arduous work, but because we have the redeeming power of Christ’s death and resurrection, we have the strength that does not come from us to do what it takes to undo our knitting a little to get to the root of the problem , or take the time to do the tedious work to get it right and get one step closer to looking a little more like our Master Knitter intended us to look like.

Be encouraged, dear friends, that God created us the way that he wanted us to be created. Spend time with him to find out where those sinful, messed up stitches are so that you can take hold of the grace that has been given to you and become more like Christ each day.