Be still...

This post contains christian thoughts and crafty goodness, 

consider yourself forewarned. 

It wasn't really until I began studying theology, that I discovered my love for the Psalms. In Danish and English, I just never made the connection to them, that I feel with so many other parts of the Bible. It all clicked, however, when I read my first Psalm in Hebrew. That changed my view of them completely and I now read and cherish them with all of my heart.

It seems there is a Psalm for every feeling and every day of my life. This past weekend, as I've been under the weather I've been meditating on a small part of a verse.

Be still and know that I am God. 

Ps 46:10

Knitting provides plenty of occasions to meditate on our faith. When you need to take a trip to the frogging pond, then be still and know that God is perfect, and there is a reason you are not. When an idea strikes you and you just have to cast on, then be still and know that God is your creator, with infinitely more passion for you than you feel for your new project. When you see the finished work you've been labouring over for hundreds or maybe thousands of hours, then be still and know that your joy is nothing compared to the joy you bring to your Maker. 

Oftentimes I fill the silence when knitting with music, podcasts or maybe TV shows. Sometimes, what we really need is to be still and just repeat a verse or maybe an entire Psalm to ourselves as we knit.

Give it a try! Let each stitch represent a word. This works best if you are knitting something fairly simple. If you are knitting something with repeats in it, I would suggest to use a phrase with the same amount of words, i.e. Be still and know that I am God, would work well for an 8 stitch repeat.

If you would rather have some music to listen to, then I urge you to listen to quite, soft tunes. The songs from Taizé work well in my personal experience and the Psalms themselves of course.

I thought I would leave you with one of my favourite psalms in Hebrew. While you may not understand a word of it, I hope you will understand the feeling it has given not only me, but countless generations before me.