Knit Together By God

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (All Saint's Day BCP 245)

It is a good time of year for knitting. The days and nights are cooler, making us all desire warm, comfy, cozy things. Knitting is not only creative, it creates something warm and comfy as well. However, if you think about knitting from the perspective of the yarn, it is a strange twisting and entangling process through which the whole, the end goal, cannot be seen. 

The Collect for this coming Sunday starts by acknowledging that God has knit all of us together in community in Christ. As the people being knit together, we are like the yarn, enduring a strange twisting and entangling process with all those around us, not always able to see God's end goal. What does the full communion, the full body of Christ, look like? Is our community comfy and cozy, as most knitting usually ends up? We cannot know. We don't always enjoy the process of being knit together, but our commitment to following Jesus keeps us prayerfully being knit together into God's handiwork.

Thankfully, we know as the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 139:13-14 "For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well." We can trust in God's knitting skills. We may not always be happy with the twists and turns our community takes, but we know God's knitting will create something wonderfully made.