Work in Progress

My friends call me The Old Lady. There are probably several reasons for this, but one of them is my love of crochet. I like to curl up on the couch and make a blanket (Netflix optional).

I’m not awesome at it – I skip loops, tighten my grip too much when I lose focus, and sometimes spill coffee on the thing. But when I stand back and look at the whole project, I can’t see those minor inconsistencies. It’s still going to serve it’s purpose of providing warmth. Actually, it already does that when I spread it across my lap to work on it.

When I’m not talking to someone or watching a show or anything while I’m working on this blanket, I have time to think. And the other night, while I sat curled up with hot tea, a ball of purple yarn, and my crochet hook (Old Lady, I know…), I started thinking about how our lives as Christians are like this blanket.

We’re being made into something – people who reflect God – but we mess up along the way. We lose focus or hold on to things that don’t matter or get hit by hard times. Sometimes we unravel (I had to use at least one yarn pun). It’s a journey. But if we’re relying on God’s Spirit to guide us, when we step back and evaluate the whole thing, we don’t see every snag we’ve hit along the way – we see someone who desperately loves Jesus and is growing in Him. Yeah, we’re works in progress, but we still have a purpose. We still have the opportunity to glorify God with our lives.

Ephesians 2:10 (ESV) talks about this:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

What’s another word for “workmanship?” Masterpiece. A work of art. Something planned and created on purpose, with a purpose. You’re God’s masterpiece.

So my blanket isn’t perfect, but with each mistake, I stop to look at what went crazy with it so that I learn from it.

And you know what? All of those imperfections don’t keep it from being a blanket. It can still do what it’s designed to do – it still brings warmth and comfort.

Romans 8:28 (ESV) tells us this:

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Catch that? God works all things together – even hard situations we can’t control – for good. For a purpose. And that purpose is to bring Him glory.

Guess what? I’m not keeping my blanket. It’s a gift. It was not made for me to hold onto it, but to share it.

It’s the same with our lives. God’s work in our lives isn’t just for our good, but for the good of others, too. We can comfort others and share the warmth of His love, and we can share our story with those who need some hope. We can show people what Jesus has done in our lives, and we can tell them how they can live in His love too.

So grow in God’s grace and reach out to people who need to be reminded that they have a purpose. Each moment matters, but there’s a design bigger than what’s in front of us.

Just keep crocheting that blanket.