extravagant love is Jesus

On the last day of our trip to Dana Point, Blonde FunkNation and I (you know I've been waiting and waiting to say that) stopped at one of the many donut shops in this little surf town with our boys.

I liked this shop especially because the guy behind the counter used tongs to get our donuts out of the case and stacked them one on top of the other. Maybe it was donut art. Maybe he was bored. Ben liked this place because it was yellow. Syd began to go into a donut trance after one old-fashioned donut.

A few blocks away there is a knitting studio called Strands that sticks out in this town of surf shops, pizza and coffee places. I learned to knit when I was in grade school, as my mom knit all the time. She made us matching sweaterdresses. But unlike my mom, I didn't stick with it.

In Austin, with 104 degree temperatures, it not hard to understand why we don't have more knitting shops. We used to have Donna's Yarn Barn. No more. Now you can buy acrylic yarn at Hobby Lobby. I would rather just torch it all in a dumpster than knit with it.

But this little studio on the sea is so compelling to me. I walk by, noticing the closed sign in the window and look in. Yarn is stacked neatly in cubicles on all the walls. Beautiful mohair, wools, cottons, all organized by color making a rainbow across the store. I notice they have a knitting class and wondered what it would be like to live in Dana Point and spend my days knitting away by the sea.

Back at the hotel, I listen to a sermon by Bill Johnson as I relax in our suite. He is talking about how God not only knows our thoughts and wishes, but sometimes acts on them even when we don't make requests in the form of a prayer - even the most trivial thoughts. He was paging through a fly fishing catalogue, which also had furniture and supposed accessories a fly fisherman would want, if he were to live the true fly fishing lifestyle. Big leather couches, etc. There was a silver flask on one page Bill thought was cool, but he didn't have any use for it. He just liked the look and shape of it.

A short time later he was in London at a church and some friends there gave gifts to him and his wife. His wife got some nice gifts picked out from a Christian bookstore, and he got a silver flask. Pretty funny.

I'm thinking about this the next time we stroll by the Strands knitting studio on our way to the Killer Dana surf shop. I think about how I've wanted to knit again, but it's never been more than a passing thought. But Blonde FunkNation encourages me to act on my desire.

I walk in during a knitting class, and the owner greets me. "I want to make a scarf," I say, "and I don't really know how to knit. Can you help me get started?" She must hear this a lot because she didn't even hesitate. "I want you to be successful," she says. So do I. We look at several yarns as I tell her what I want to make. I look through a few books and then she lets me be free to wander around. I listen to the women knitting and look at what they are making, beautiful blankets and sweaters. Knitting seems like a lost art to me.

I have several memories of my mom and cousins sitting around knitting and talking as we look out over the bay of Michigan Lake in Ephraim, the sun setting. A place where you used to be able to wear wool sweaters in the summer, before global warming.

I finally pick out a soft, faded navy blue baby camel hair yarn and a mottled fuzzy blue mohair yarn that reminds me of the sea, to make a scarf for Blonde FunkNation. The owner tells me it will be so beautiful, then takes 15 minutes to ball up my yarn for me.

I find out she's from Michigan originally and moved to Laguna Beach when she was 18. She dated a boy from Austin for a few years. We are about the same age. As she continues to talk, I feel the stress of the past months leave me. There is something cathartic about knitting shops. I love the yarn, I love the bamboo needles, the beautiful books, the carefully knit up samples.

"Do you know how to castdown?" she says to me. I have no idea of what she's talking about. "I'll get you started so you can knit on the plane ride home," she says. She teaches me some basic stitches in about five minutes and rings me up. The cost to make this scarf is about the cost of a good wool sweater but I don't care. Blonde FunkNation will love it.

Later on our Southwest flight home, the flight attendant asks what I'm making. "I'm making him"- I point across the aisle to where Blonde FunkNation is sitting - "a scarf to match his eyes."
"WOWEE!" she almost yells, "you must be some special guy to get that kind of treatment!"

Knitting is a good companion to prayer, as I pray and knit and wonder about all God has in store. As I knit and feel the yarn beneath my fingertips, I see the ocean in my mind's eye and think about how good God is to me, how much I loved being with my family on the beach away from all the stress and busyness of our recent lives. How God knows that for me the yellow donut shop, a good cappuccino and a knitting studio will make me feel so loved and special to Him. My love for Him is simple and His love for me is so extravagant!

Mostly what God does is love you.

Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. Ephesians 5:1

(from the Message)