Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9
For several years, a group of ladies have gathered most Friday mornings to knit, crochet and quilt. I have watched as they take a tangled-up ball of yarn and make a beautiful scarf, a colorful lap robe, or a pair of tiny baby booties. They convinced me that I could make the same beautiful pieces that they do. But, my first pieces didn’t quite look like theirs! I struggled with dropped stitches, misread instructions, and a lack of patience. Sometimes, I took a tangled-up ball of yarn and ended up with an even more tangled-up mess.
A tangled mess; sometimes that’s a good description of my life. I keep trying to fix it, to untangle the yarn, but I end up with an even bigger mess. My mess overwhelms me! In tears, I take my tangled-up mess of a life and lift it up to God to ask for His help. Because of God’s grace and love, He looks at my mess and He can see what it is supposed to be. My loving Heavenly Father doesn’t just see my sins, He sees me, the person He wants me to be. His grace is big enough to fill in gaps, those dropped stitches, where I have made mistakes. God doesn’t need me to be perfect, He wants me to lean on His perfection. I need to learn from my mistakes, to use His grace to grow and change. God’s free and unlimited gift of grace is the example I need to use and remember daily to help me extend grace to others. God’s grace gives me the perfect example to follow that helps me to act with kindness, goodness, and gentleness.
My crochet projects still don’t look as good as those of the Friday crafting group, but they’re getting better with each piece. And that’s another illustration of my life – getting better with God’s grace and learning to extend that grace to all around me. I am learning to lean on God’s perfection. I still drop a few stitches, make mistakes, but I have fewer tangled-up balls of yarn.
Bev Barnes, Admin. Assistant for the Communications Team
