I sit and look in amazement as Helen knits away…the sock in her lap has several rows, each row one particular colour. Yet Helen has but one ball of wool. How can it be?
It was a mystery she solved by showing me a sheet of paper with lots of notes on it. “This is the pattern, I just have to follow it.”
Sounds so simple. Someone had obvious worked out just how many stitches were needed for each row of red, green and beige. If you stuck to the pattern, you wouldn’t run into any problems.
I have few skills with needles and wool but any time I had attempted something like that it involved a lot of different coloured balls of wool and a lot of tying. Not Helen, she just calmly trusted the pattern and away she went.
It reminded me of one of my favorite scripture passages from Jeremiah 29:11 that says ”For I know the plans I have for you. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
I believe this but must admit I have a tendency to go my own way at times, ignoring the plans that God has for me and like the sock, my life gets complicated and things do not run in the order they should when I reject the pattern laid out for me.
Of course, we are never sure what the plan really is or what the outcome will be. I guess that’s what faith is all about.
I am glad the Lord has had a plan for me, especially the last five years. For a while there after my husband died, I really felt life was finished and there was nothing to look forward to.
Now my frig door holds a photo of three tiny great-grandchildren, yes, three little precious parcels to bring sunshine into each new day. And I have come to know so many women who shared with me their mourning and their recovery. They gave me hope.
And my writing has taken over the empty times that surfaced after my husband died. God had a plan for me and I believe things will work out and the rest of my days will look like the finished product He always had in mind for me.
