Even the most expert, experienced knitters make at least one mistake in every project. No knitting project is perfect from beginning to end. Some mistakes you can live with. But there are other mistakes you can’t ignore. They adversely affect the whole.
Consider Ecclesiastes 3:7, “a time to tear and a time to sew.” When we discover we’ve made a bad mistake in our knitting, then it’s “time to tear”! There are times when we have to take apart our hard work and get to the root of the problem.
This ripping back, or tearing out, or knitting backwards, is symbolic of life. There are times when we are making a mistake in our lives, even though we might have put a lot of work into our life design. But we discover that the mistake is systemic and must be addressed. This realization that something is wrong and that this wrong thing must be made right is what we call repentance.
This message is excerpted from “Stitches and scripture,” a 2011 Women of the ELCA resource.
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