Looking back over last year, i have to say that it was a good one overall. I saw many changes and a lot o personal and spiritual growth for me and for my family.

 What would I want this year.....? This come to me in the middle of our midweek service tonight and i knew I was being told to write it in my blog.

I want knitting.

I 'd ask God for a closer knit family and a tighter knit marriage. I actually taught myself to knit out of a desire to know God in a more intimate way.

I know it sounds funny:) Let me explain....

Psalm 139:13 (New International Version)

says: 

 13 For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I wanted to enjoy and better understand the creative process of God's design of the human body.

For those of you who don't knit- it is mostly just pulling yarn through a series of loops with the aid of two sticks. There are really only 2 stitches and everything else is a variation on those. 

 What does a knitter do..... Well, she knows  how she wants the finished product to look. She either uses a pattern or she has an ability to forsee the end  result of her work. She uses imagination to make something beautiful. She takes something without much form and makes it into something that has a purpose. It may be something like a dishcloth, or something very complex like a doily or a goth style sweater.

I want to see God continuing His work in and through me.

I want to be knit together closer with my husband and for us to be worked even- into God's plan for us. When a multicolored pattern is knit, it is done in one of two ways. There is one way, called stranding ( sometimes referred to as "fair Isle") in which the different colors are carried along together on the backside of the fabric, making the end result strong and warm, but sometimes that can get caught on things, like fingers and toes. it is also not as pretty on the inside, and sometimes it gets in the way, like too many cooks spoiling the broth. Sometimes it is good to have this kind of a knit and sometimes it might be better if it were simpler.

That's when the situation calls for intarsia knitting. In this kind of knitting, the yarns are twisted around each other as one is dropped and the other is picked up to form stitches in the new color. The fabric ends up being only one layer thick, and can be reversible so that the inside or backside is just as nice as the outside. Each strand appears only to do it's own job and does not interfere with the rest, yet it is still wrapped together, so that the different color sections stay together without gaps.

And when something is knit, the colors don't mingle, but the next row is pulled through the first row. it is a picture to me that we have to open ourselves up in order to let in new growth, and to provide support to the new yarn that is being added. I hope this year to open my home and my heart more. I pray that the growth this year will be in relationships with many people.