Our Tangled World



The other day, I went into my weaving room, eager to start weaving a prayer scarf for a friend. I’d bought the wool a couple of weeks earlier, and I was looking forward to beginning the process of getting the warp set up on my loom ready to start.



I picked up one of the balls of wool and proceeded to dig into the middle of the ball to pull out an end. It resisted my attempts! I tried to find the end on the outside of the ball. That too resisted my attempts! I continued to pull on the middle part of the ball, as that is my preferred method anyway… and I pulled out a clump of tangled yarn. The outside end seemed somehow to have become entangled in that clump too, and I couldn’t easily separate it. The more I tried to pull it all apart, the worse it became. I realized it was going to be a long job to get it all in order so I could actually begin weaving! 




 I struggled with it for some time, pulling out clump after clump and letting it trail onto the floor as I smoothed it out. Then at last I found an end! I decided the best thing to do was to rewind the whole ball, so I placed the end on my ball winder and began. Then I hit a tangle and had to stop and undo the knots and untangle the yarn so it ran smooth and free from obstructions, before I could continue to wind again. Then I came to another tangle…and another…and another. Unfortunately I had to break the yarn a few times, because the yarn was so knotted, it was impossible to smooth it out.





Finally, after about 4 hours I had a cake of yarn and several small balls, all ready for weaving to commence…the next day!








As I looked back on my frustrating afternoon, I began to reflect on it all.
  

 I thought, that tangled mess on the floor is a bit like our world at the moment. All in a mess and not quite what we expect it to look like. It has so many knots in it that have to somehow be smoothed out – more medical staff to help with the growing number of patients; more protective equipment for all the health professional to use to protect themselves; the vulnerable needing help to get food and medicine during self isolation; employees wanting assurances about wages while they adhere to government directions to stay at home; businesses and the self employed needing security that they won’t ‘go under’; somewhere for homeless people to be safe during the lockdown (and beyond it)…. The list increases on a daily basis.



Yet still, there is someone, somewhere trying to bring order out of the chaos; undoing those ‘knots’ and smoothing out the thread of our lives. Industry; financial institutions; the public sector all trying to come together and lend a hand.



Eventually, the world will recover, the knots will be sorted and things will get back to normal? Or will they? Should it go back to what it once was, or should it actually be better?



My ball of yarn was not the same shape after I had untangled all the mess. It is now known as a yarn ‘cake’ rather than a ball. The change in its shape won’t stop it being used for my weaving project though. In fact, in many ways, a yarn cake is much easier to use than the commercially wound balls.



So just maybe our nation – and indeed the whole world - will look a little bit different when the coronavirus has been defeated. Just maybe, we will have smoothed out all the knots and tangles in our society and will make it a better nation, a fairer nation, a fairer world for everyone.



May Your kingdom come Lord

on earth as it is in heaven






Comments

  1. We need God to step in for sure...in every area of our lives x

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