Step by step - to beautiful

 

I received a gift card to my favorite yarn shop. Soon I'll be going shopping with a girlfriend. I'll be able to pick out some really beautiful, good quality yarn. I decided to make a cardigan sweater for myself. I spent days searching site after site, looking for just the right pattern. Read every detail. Considered this one, then back to that one. Re-reading and picturing the steps in my mind. Then I grabbed some yarn I already had. And started practicing the pattern. You see, some of it was a well known and familiar stitch. But I was going to go beyond the known and familiar - to trying the cable stitch. I read and re-read. Then pictured it in my mind. Then taking one step at a time, followed the directions, phrase by phrase. I practiced it. I tried again and again. I had to keep referring back to the original pattern a few times. But eventually I caught the rhythm of it. Eventually it became familiar and my knitting went along more smoothly.

Perhaps this lesson can be applied to reading the bible. First off, it is a gift. Then you get to decide. Then it's time to pursue with the same passion as looking for the perfect pattern. It's reading and re-reading and picturing things in your mind. It's the comfort found in familiar passages and then going beyond for something more. (Do you know that at one time I only knitted mittens, because I was afraid of patterns asking for more thought and concentration?) Breaking the unknown into manageable bites - referring back to the original words time and time again until this new enlightenment finds its rhythm in your soul. And now you have something greater and more beautiful than you had just staying at the level where you were most comfortable.

Will life go more smoothly with a greater knowledge / sense of God?

Will the unknown continue to hold you back, or will you dare to pursue God and practice pursuing God more - until eventually God becomes more familiar, more beautiful, more amazing ...

more.

Come to Me... (Matthew 11:28)

Return to Me... (isaiah 44:22)

Abide with Me... (John 15:4)

Gaze upon the beauty of the Lord (Psalm 27:4)