“And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” – 1 Samuel 18:1
My mom taught me to knit when I was young. I have two sweaters to prove it, but learning how involved a bit of trial and error. My first project was a pair of socks. Mom started me off and I did quite well binding each color of yarn together. The first sock I did perfectly, but on the second one, when I came to the heel of the sock, I made a stitch incorrectly. Something did not seem right but I just kept going anyway. Needless to say, I did not end up with a perfect pair of socks; in fact, one could say that they were not a “pair” at all.
It is interesting that simply weaving yarn patterns of knots can result in nice garments, blankets, or other items. In that way, knitting is somewhat like building a friendship. If each person involved in the friendship cares and keeps in contact with the other, a relationship will grow and eventually their lives will be knit together into something beautiful. Friends talk, share, communicate, and spend time together on a regular basis. However, if one is not considerate of the other, and does not take the time to talk and share, or is too busy to communicate, the relationship will have problems. Rather than developing into something lovely, it will dissipate.
In the New Testament, Jesus called His followers “friends.” The implication is that Jesus expects some communication from us. He wants to hear from us in the morning and at night and in between. He wants us to share with Him the burdens of our day, and to offer our thanks and praise for the good or wonderful things that occurred throughout the day.
When a friend calls on the phone, we usually recognize his or her voice right away because we have heard it many times before. We want to communicate with Jesus enough that we recognize His voice too, and we need to be confident that He will also know ours when we cry out to Him. On some occasions we may be in sudden danger and need to call on Him immediately. There really is not time at that moment to get acquainted, so we need the doors of communication to be open at all times.
Make sure today that you keep in touch with that special Friend. As we keep working on this relationship, we will find our soul is being knit to the Lord’s in a beautiful way!