I was crocheting a blanket and the time had come to use a new color. I grabbed the end from the center of the bright yellow ball of yarn. Things went fine…for awhile. But soon I found that every time I’d try to pull the yarn it would inevitably get tangled with the other end. Somehow the two ends were both coming from inside the skein (usually one is wrapped around the outside) and it was taking a lot of the joy out of my relaxing hobby.
I finally cut the yarn end from the project and decided to roll the skein into a ball. That should make it much easier to work with. But rolling it into a ball was no easy task. It was the strangest thing. While I would occasionally be able to roll up a long piece of the yellow yarn, I would soon find myself foiled by that aggravating end over and over again. The two ends were so entwined with one another that even rolling it into a ball was a difficult task that took much time. I did contemplate just buying another skein but here was this perfectly fine yarn in front of me. How silly to purchase more! At this point, it was the principle! I worked on it for several hours but finally, late last night, I groaned with frustration.
“What’s wrong?” asked my husband. I held up my yarn and told him how frustrating this task was. Never one to back down from a challenge, he told me to let him try. I most gladly handed the whole tangled mess over to him.
In a few minutes, he, too, agreed that it was an impossible task. The yarn was so snarled that it hardly seemed worth it. He did work on it for a while, making the ball of yarn a bit bigger. But, finally, he gave it to me and asked if I thought this was good enough. You can see from the photo above that there is quite a bit of yarn left but…well, life is just too short for some things!
As I sat there rolling that yarn, I did a lot of thinking. The whole situation reminded me an awful lot of life and our attempts at creating something useful and beautiful from an unorganized, sinful mess. The end that kept getting in my way and causing all of the problem was like my sin. Just always there, tripping me up, making life harder. Once in awhile, I would grab one of my needles to help me with an especially difficult knot. This reminded me of the living Word of God that pierces between joint and marrow and is a discerner of the heart (Hebrews 4:12). What my own fingers found as an impossible task, the needle not only made possible but even rather easy.
After I had given up, I realized that the tangled skein of yarn is like my life without Christ. I can work and work and work at it on my own and, perhaps, even have a time of smooth sailing and even be able to make some positive life changes. But without Christ, it is all in naught and I will eventually be beaten by my sin. If not in life, then in death. Sin will win, if Christ isn’t called upon.
The yarn also reminded me of how lost I would be without the Bible, which was given as a gift by God to us, His people. For where else do we learn of Who Christ is? Of what sin is? Where do we find true comfort? Just as my fingers couldn’t undo many of those knots in the yarn, so, too, our human vain philosophies and theories can’t provide any help in the midst of the temptations and trials we face. I needed that needle and we need the Word of God.
Lastly, I was reminded of how much sin gets in my way. Oh, how those sins we wrongly call “minor” knot up our lives. Sins like complaining; self-pity; being offended; loving the world and the things of this world; striving for popularity or wealth or health more than we are striving to grow in Christ; and so many others. They all keep us from being who we have been called to be by God. Denying self and its lusts, we must take up our cross and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23) All too often, we want to indulge self rather than deny it and this has its consequences in our lives.
I can walk away from that bright yellow ball of yarn. But I can’t walk away from my life. Because I am human, I will always struggle with sin, with wanting to love the world, and with a life that is messy and tangled, at some level. But intentionally confessing my sin, turning from the world, and working, through the help of the Holy Spirit, to be more Christlike and holy each and every day will yield much fruit in my spiritual life.
The other day I was talking with someone about how hard it is to follow the truth of God’s Word–all of it, not just the easy, comforting parts. The Bible tells us things our flesh doesn’t like–such as asking us to not be a friend of the world, denying self, and calling us to be holy and separated as a people. It reminds us to expect suffering for our choice to live for Christ. And while submitting and obeying God’s Word may lead to a more difficult outward life (the ridicule and persecution is real)–our ball of yarn (our inward life) unwinds so much more smoothly and easily. God really does keep His promises and those who follow His truth–all of it and no matter the cost–will find that the blessings that come from that are worth the ridicule, the suffering, and the persecution. God truly does bless those who seek Him.
Who knew unraveling a ball of yarn could be so thought-provoking?