Untangling The Knots.

When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I was fascinated every time I saw my grandmother knitting. She made me beautiful jumpers and cardigans, and I began wondering if I could produce similar garments. Never one to run before I can walk, my initial goal was to make a dress for one of my Barbie dolls, so my Nana Dill began the mission of teaching me to knit, with a bit of help from my Auntie Pat.

I picked it up quite well, after a few failed attempts, and have been knitting ever since. Later, I even learned to crochet. I find it a relaxing pastime, and there’s something fulfilling about watching a garment come together under your own hands. But there is one major frustration. Just when you’re in the middle of creating, you come across every knitter’s nightmare – the tangles in the wool.

I remember making a huge blanket to cover our bed, and needing to use massive 400 gram balls of yarn, each one full of tangles. It seems the more wool you deal with, the more knots you find. I am not very good at untangling these messes. I just don’t have the patience for it. Yet, my father would spend hours carefully dissecting each ball, unravelling the knots, and re-rolling them for me. It was a true act of love.

One time, in the middle of creating my blanket, I began thinking about the correlation between the knots in the wool and the knots in my own life. Just when I am going along smoothly, believing I am right in the centre of God’s will, and life is sweet, I seem to come up against something that hampers my progress. I know this is partly because I have an enemy who doesn’t want me progressing in my journey of faith, and partly because of sin in my own life, and issues I haven’t yet dealt with.

The knots come in various forms. They can be knots of worry, knots of unbelief, knots of selfishness or pride, … The list just goes on and on. When I come up against a knot, what should I do? Again, I turned to my knitting for advice. I thought about my dad patiently standing in the middle of a room with the wool spread out on the floor all around him. Beginning at one end, he would carefully re-roll an entire 400 gram ball, and each time he came upon a knot, he would gently ease it out, with minimal tugging, knowing that if he pulled too hard, he would snap the strand. I think that’s how Jesus works with us. I become frustrated over the knots in my life, but if I let him, the Lord will gently unravel them, until I am able to go on again.

One of the mistakes I make when I come to a knot is to just push it down. You can do that when you’re knitting. You just go on pulling the wool, and keep pushing the knot further and further down the strand. But if you do that, rather than fixing the issue, you’ll make it worse, because the knot becomes tighter, and picks up more wool to add to its muddle. Eventually, you’re forced to confront the problem, but by then, it’s become so tight and out of control that you sometimes have to resort to snapping the yarn, bypassing the knot, and picking up another piece. This means wool is wasted.

I know there have been times when I’ve pushed things down in my life, because I don’t want to deal with them. I do this with worry especially. I try and bury it, all the while allowing the fears to take more and more control, pulling in other bits of my life in the process. If only I’d take these things to the Lord and deal with them when they first surface, the process of him untangling them would be much simpler. If I let the worries consume me, I have been known to snap, and end up in a state of anguish and upset. I know this isn’t what Jesus wants for me. There is a much better way. He’s been waiting patiently for me to come to him, so why do I so often leave it until I’m at the end of my tether, not knowing which way to turn?

Perhaps worry isn’t your struggle, but I know we all have them. Some of our knots aren’t things we wish to share with others, but we can always share them with the Lord. Remember, he already knows everything there is to know about us, so why do we hide?

We shouldn’t be surprised that our lives are full of knots, because we are sinners living in a sinful world. We should never expect perfection, because we are being perfected in Christ, and will only reach ultimate perfection in glory. The apostle Paul recognised this when he wrote his letter to the Philippians. He had very high goals. “I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3: 10-11.) Yet, in the very next verse, he says: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Verse 12.) If Paul, with all his wisdom and learning, could still recognise himself as a work in progress, then we should be encouraged to do the same.

There may be times when the knots in our lives will become so tight as a result of us continually pushing them down that we will feel we are snapping either mentally or spiritually. If this is where you are today, then don’t let your enemy fool you into thinking this is the end, and you’ve blown it for good. Remember, the wool can always be re-joined, and once the garment of your life is complete and all the ends have been tied up, you’ll look back, and you won’t be able to see the join, because God will have cleverly worked it into the fabric.

If, like me, your struggle is fear and worry, then here’s a scripture I find very helpful. “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the centre of your life.” (Philippians 4: 6-7 MSG.) if your struggles are different, then look for scriptures that can help you, just as this one does me.

Whatever is causing the knots in your life, you can be sure your Heavenly Father is ready and eager to help you untangle them, and he will do so with patience and love, just as my earthly father did with my wool. He won’t mind how long he has to spend working with you until the tangles are straightened out, and if, just as you feel you are getting one thing dealt with, another seems to come fast on its heels, then don’t fret, because the Lord knew about it long before you did, and he already has it covered. Try not to fight against him. If you resist and begin pulling away, the knot will become tighter, and more difficult to untangle. Just rest, lay it all down, and let Jesus work. I can promise you that when he’s finished, he’ll weave you into a beautiful garment, made exactly to the pattern he designed.