Expecting Miracles

I raced to the craft store and asked the clerk there what kind of needles I needed for knitting. I explained they were for an elderly woman, and I wasn't certain she would remember how to use them. What would be best? She gave me size 10 bamboo needles. I picked out a lovely multicolored skein of soft yarn and hurried to the nursing home.

Mom K was sitting at a table by herself. She didn't seem to be doing anything, just gazing at nothing. I walked up to her and she broke into a wide smile.
"I have a surprise for you," I said, hugging her.
I wheeled her over to a little alcove with a window overlooking a garden, and a rocking chair for me to sit in. Then I put the bag in her lap and told her to open her surprise.
"Oh my," she said.
"Can you remember how to use these?" I asked.
"I think so," she said, pulling out the yarn and needles.
So I opened the needles package and handed them to her. I pulled the loose end of the yarn from the skein and lay the skein in her lap.
She instantly picked up the end and began to loop it expertly around the needle. Her face was very focused on her hands as they remembered.
"Who taught you to knit?" I asked.
"My grandmother, and my mother," she said, "Many people."
"You seem to know exactly what you're doing," I said, with delight.
"It has been a long time, but I am remembering."
"I will have a scarf in no time!" I said clapping my hands.
"Now don't expect miracles!" she warned, glancing up at me.
"But I do," I said earnestly, "I do expect miracles!"
She knitted quietly.
"Oh Mom," I said, "I found your diamond ring!"
She paused in her knitting, her eyes wide.
"Where!?"
"Arvo has it! He told me it flew off your finger in the hospital and a nurse picked it up. Do you want me to get a necklace for it and you can wear it around your neck?"
She burst into a radiant smile, and her eyes welled up, "That is wonderful! No, for now you just keep it for me." She continued smiling as she resumed knitting.
We chatted as she knit. She dropped some stitches but patiently kept at it, slowly, carefully, intently. Then a volunteer came to tell me it was time for lunch.
"Already?" said Mom K.
"Mom, I will take this and put it on your dresser. We can tell the nurse to help you get it again after lunch and you can work on it this afternoon."
I tucked the needles in the skein and wheeled her to lunch, stopping off at her room to run in and put the yarn on her dresser.
"Where did you put it?" she asked when I came back out. She sounded interested, alert, and possessive of this new project. I could have cried with joy.
"Right on your dresser where you can find it," I assured her.

I kissed her goodbye after wheeling her to her place at the lunch table. The nurse promised me that after lunch, they would help get her situated with her knitting.
"I can't wait to see what you will accomplish!" I said as I headed out the door.
"Don't expect miracles!" she said again, laughing.
"I have already seen one!" I replied.

Job 5:9 (NIV)
He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted.




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