Simple Pleasures

ever had one of THOSE days when all it would take to make it better was to just sit and HOLD your yarn?  when things seemed to be more than just a bit awry, perceptions of progress were viewed as going backwards rather than the forward hopes and plans originally intended? if you had to sum up your day the phrase 'what a waste!' [complete with eye roll] would come to mind?  please, oh please, just let me sit and knit and then everything would be okay!  do you know what i'm talking about?

it's at 'these' very moments when returning to the basics of it all seems to be the perfect solution, the most desirable of tasks . . to make the connection again with a ball of string and some needles and be able to recall the restoration of 'level' when thinking back on what happens when you just sit and knit!  one of my all time favorite quotes says

"In the rhythm of the needles there is music for the soul!"

and i have learned, time and again, just how perfect that fits into my life .... into my day .... and often into the very moment of whatever is going on around me - to recall the Joy of the task, the Contentment of the investment, the Connection in single stitches of progress.  Knots are inevitable in my every day AND my skeins of yarn .... but nothing can deter the simple pleasure, or melody, of this overall process.

yesterday i was floored by a 5th grader who asked me if i could explain to him what 86 BC meant.  when i said that BC talked about the years before Christ was born he very innocently looked up at me and said "What's Christ?".  I honestly stood there and thought my heart was going to stop because i don't know that i've ever encountered someone without ANY clue of who the Lord was.  there are plenty of people around me who choose NOT to believe ... but to meet someone this up-close and personal who didn't even know that Jesus was a CHOICE ???? !!!!!!   OH MY SOUL!!!!   My heart broke and all i could do is pray that God would guide my ever word as i seized the innocence of that moment to explain the plan of salvation with the holidays of Christmas and Easter .... he replied "oh, isn't that one of the stories in the Bible?  My mom said she'd get me a Bible!"   WHAT?????    i've got Bibles laying all over my house and here before me stands a child, who represents an entire family, without a single copy of His Word??  Oh Virginia Lynn .....  the basics!  the bascis!  no need for long dissertations of the Holiness of the Diety, and the Vengence of an Angry God and the Grace and Mercy of the Post Millenial Kingdom ....   this child needed the simple "Sit and Knit" basics of Who God is and how Jesus wants to live in his heart!

To describe my day as FANTASTIC would be a bit on the sarcastic side most days - - finding the Joy in each moment comes for seeking Him withIN each moment - He shows me the "sit and knit" spots along the way, and this helps to put things in perspective so that when i do encounter the Knots .. or the hard questions that take me by surprize ... i immediately know WHO to run to ... Who can undo the Knots and get the stitches of my day back on His needles!  I know that i can run to my Father with arms outstretched and plead "Fix it Father!" and He will gently take the mangled mess of my day and patiently put things back in their proper place ..... How i long to be able to sing "I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy down in my heart!  Down in my heart to stay" as He knits me together, day by day .... hearing Him hum the chorus along side me as He sits and knits my heart to His!  (wonder if He grins when He gets to just hold the yarn of my life without me squirming and wiggling and trying to slip off His needles? ! ..... or if His shoulders relax and he says to Himself  "aahhh ... I remember:  knitting IS fun?)  .... just curious ...........