Cross Stitch

 There is something beautiful about working with your hands - creating something. When I was in elementary school the Girl Scouts learned to cross-stitch. I wasn't very good at it, but the Christmas ornaments we made are still some of my favorites that hang on the family tree.
   In high school I learned how to knit and it was completely different from the cross-stitch. Once I got the hang of it I could knit and pearl without much thought until the yarn rans out. But cross-stitches are different - colors and thread counts and stitches change. You have to pay attention.
   With counted cross-stitches, one without patterns printed on fabrics, you have to pay even more attention. Pay attention to each stitch, but for me it is becoming a form of prayer. A discipline of praying for the person who will receive the finished product, for I rarely keep them. The months of work that go into the canvas, representing hours of prayer. Intentional thought. Time in the presence of God. The ones who receive may never know of the prayers that are prayed, but they are in ever stitch, ever thread, every knot. Prayers of blessing, hope, and peace. Amen.