Lesson from a ball of yarn

Have you ever felt swamped by unfinished projects, unresolved problems, nagging fears, and the tendency to put things into piles rather than deal with them, thus creating a mound of entanglement and confusion? I have, all too often. But I’m grateful to say that a recent experience helped me get unsnarled. 

Let me explain. When it comes to crocheting, I’m no expert. But when the invitation to a friend’s baby shower arrived in the mail, I decided to give it another try and make something cozy for the new baby. Off I went to a local craft store and purchased a few skeins of beautiful pink yarn. Eagerly I ripped the wrapper off a skein and started to form it into a ball. Soon I found myself in a disheartening mess. The opposite ends of the yarn had become so entwined that the more I tried to untangle them, the more snarled up they became. I threw everything back into a bag and was ready to forget the whole project. 

Although I don’t cry easily, tears ran down my cheeks like a river. I just felt that so many things in my life right then were like that tangled yarn. Then I paused as a phrase from a statement by Mary Baker Eddy came to thought—“unwinding one’s snarls.” That pause became a prayer as I turned to read the full sentence from Science and Health: ”The divine method of paying sin’s wages involves unwinding one’s snarls, and learning from experience how to divide between sense and Soul” (p. 240).

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