Basket Case

In the corner of my office sits a basket.  It is filled with skeins and balls of yarn, of many colors.  Some are remnants of my own past projects, others are cast-offs of someone else.  I find bags of yarn at Goodwill, some leftovers are given to me, and once in a great while, I actually buy brand new!  There are times when the basket is all but empty, and keeping with human nature - this is when I desire to crochet the most.  Right now the basket is overflowing, and I have very little motivation to help it empty.  As I was hunting for something in my file box this morning, I stared at the basket of yarn and realized that my life resembles it.  It is just sitting there, waiting to be made into something more than it is!

When I buy a new skein, it’s because I love the color, or the texture, and I already have something I want to make out of it.  I don’t know how to do much with yarn - I do not knit, weave or create string art.  I don’t even know how to read a pattern!  What I do know how to do - and not that well, is crochet.  A friend taught me the basics several years ago, and I’ve enjoyed making scarves and beanie hats ever since.  I’ve even made a few purses and bags, all from just an idea in my head.  They can not be repeated or copied well, and I certainly couldn’t tell anyone how I did it.  I just start at the beginning and when I’m at the end, I stop.

New skeins can be quite ornery, unless the manufacturer makes it easy to work with right from the beginning.  It should start smoothly…but it rarely does.  While it may look innocent enough in it’s original form, it most likely will need much work in order to be truly useful.  I just love finding a skein of yarn that has been formed to work from the center out…seeing that little end of the string poking out from the very middle of itself.  I know then, that it’s going to cooperate and will be easily turned into something more than it is.  When this isn’t the case, it will just get tangled up in itself, and it will need some undoing, and turned into a ball before I can even work with it.

Left to itself, my basket of yarn is nothing more.  It can not change what it is, or it’s shape, unless someone is willing to help it out.  It could be a great many things, but rest assured, whatever it becomes, it will keep someone warm.  It takes time for it to become something, so patience should be practiced, and it takes skill to shape it.  There is however, a limit to what you can do with it.  You can not, and really should not, eat it, make a boat, or build a house with it.

What I have learned from my basket of yarn?  It should not just be set in a corner, left unused.  I should not allow myself to just sit either.  Like my own creations with the yarn, I can not be repeated or copied and I’m sure God started at the beginning and when He’s done with me, He’ll stop.  I look innocent enough, but can be very ornery and am not always easy to work with.  I do know how to cooperate most days, but don’t always choose to.  I get tangled up, and just as easily unraveled.  I need others to help me become something more than I am, and I need God to turn my heart into a thing of beauty.  God’s will definitely shapes me, and I pray that I will be warm.  It’s going to take practice and a great deal of patience, but I could be a great many things!

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.  Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!  Your workmanship is marvelous - how well I know it.”
Psalm 139:13-14