Knitting

I'm a knitter. Right now, I'm working on a project that uses a knitting chart. Each square holds a symbol for a particular kind of stitch. The resulting knitting is a lace project -- holes aligned to form a picture, where the spaces are as important as the stitches themselves.

To use a knitting chart, one reads it from right to left, unless you are working on the back of the knitting (which is every other row) in which case the chart is read from left to right. In addition to direction changes, every other row the meaning of the symbols change. Until you get in a rhythm, chart reading can be challenging.

As I knit, I just had to trust the chart. In fact, at one point, when I had spent a lot of time trying to determine if what I was doing was correct, I said Steve, "Trust the chart. Just trust the chart." It wasn't until I had knit many rows that I was able to see the big picture.

Following God can be like that. We don't always (or often) know the role of each stitch in the big picture, and sometimes it doesn't always seem to make sense.

Trust God. Follow the chart. Enjoy the emerging pattern, once you can see it.