Well, not really. I do get into this weird shopping head when I am in a store, though. It is almost meditative... but not really. Jesus does come along for the ride, though. I have Handel's Messiah blaring in the car these days. Leonard Bernstein apparently horrified the music world back in the '50s when he decided to arrange the Messiah into two sections: a Christmas and an Easter. He even moved the Hallelujah chorus. Can you imagine that? It kind of makes sense to me.
Last year, during Advent, I listened the Christmas piece over and over again while knitting a prayer shawl for a friend. She had just lost her husband and I wanted to let her know that people were thinking of her. The prayer shawl is a cool ministry. You knit a three stitch sequence over and over (a nod to the Trinity, obviously) while praying for the recipient. Eventually, the movement of your hands becomes automatic, but the stitch design is just complicated enough that you have to keep paying attention. I knit my friend's out of blue mohair, which reminded me of my grandmother. Granny always had mohair shawls around her house. When she died, I got two of them. Advent with the Messiah and the prayer shawl was one of the most sacred times I have ever experienced.
Now, for some reason, I am listening to Easter... over and over again. So even as I am doing stupid chores, like shopping for shoes, I am brought back, again and again, to the miracle of His love and sacrifice. I am two years into this and still can't believe that God walked among us. Thank you, God.
Prayer Shawl Ministry
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