Willing to be spun...

I sat at my spinning wheel this morning and began to spin some yarn out of a prized fleece. As I spun, God began to open up to me the likeness He has to a spinner. Yes, He is a Master Weaver and we love to wear the robes He creates! But, have we ever considered the preparation that must occur in order for Him to prepare the “garment” of our lives in Him?

Wool comes from sheep ~ it is their outermost garment that keeps them warm in winter and cool in summer. It is their comfort thru rain, sleet, snow and sunshine. Most sheep do not like being sheared because it requires them to be still. Sheep are normally sheared in a seated position, which they also do not like. The process itself normally does not take very long but this depends a lot on the sheep being cooperative. You cannot explain the shearing need to the sheep, they really do not understand. They don’t like feeling naked.

The shearer gets right to “heart” of things by taking off the belly wool first. This wool is unusable and contaminated heavily with dirt, mud, urine – you get the picture. He then starts at the rear leg, coming up the hock, sides and across part of the back. Moving to the front of the sheep (sheep is still seated), the shearer works the front leg much like the rear one. Then, he carefully shears up the neck area and proceeds down the back a bit – almost done now! He can then begin at the bottom leg on the other side and continue shearing in the same manner as the first. It is a careful process all designed to keep the wool intact and in one piece. I am always amazed how the sheep always ends up on its feet as the shearing process is completed.

After the wool has been shorn, it must be skirted. All of the hay particles, dung tags and dirt saturated areas come off first and are easily stripped away. Shaking the fleece can help too, allowing for more loose stuff to fall away. There is usually some imbedded junk that has to be removed by hand. Now, the fleece has to be washed. The soapy water has to be pretty hot to get fleece clean. You can’t agitate or rub the fleece too hard or you will cause it to felt. Rinse in the same way ~ it’s very important that the water temperature remain the same. Hot washing and cold rinsing will cause the wool to shrink into an unusable mess. Clean wool must be dried ~ sunshine and a gentle breeze helps. You may have to turn the fleece over a couple of times but the sunshine and breeze alone are sufficient to complete the task.

Half-way done! Once the wool has been skirted, washed and dried it still has to be picked and carded. Clean wool still holds a lot of “junk” in it, especially tiny thorns from hay matter. You may also find hay and grain particles, which can be difficult to remove. This is the most painstaking task! You will want to break out the hand cards to open up the fleece. Be careful ~ the teeth of a hand card are sharp and direct contact to skin will cause serious injury! A pair of hand cards is used to fluff up the wool and separate the fibers. Combing the fibers in the same direction makes for some really nice roving. Once the fiber is picked apart, it can be closely inspected for deeply imbedded foreign matter. Remove anything that isn’t wool. You should now have roving – a soft, lofty piece of primed wool ready for spinning. You should note, in this present state, the refined wool is easily pulled apart and sways easily in the wind. It does not yet have the strength necessary to endure being worn in its present state.

There is a string on the spindle of the wheel that you must attach the roving to in order to spin wool into yarn. The refined string is threaded thru the eye of the needle. You must place the roving across the string and hold tightly. The wheel can be started by a touch of the hand and treadling begins here. It is important to note the wheel must only travel in ONE direction to spin yarn. As the spinning ensues, the “puff” of roving begins to twist and attach itself to the string. The two separate pieces become one and the wool puff becomes a yarn string, winding thru that small hole, called the eye of the needle.

What was once a fragile puff of wool becomes a sturdy piece of twisted yarn. You might think NOW everything is ready, but wait! Once again, comes a hot soaking to set the twist of the yarn. Without the heat, the yarn quickly becomes unraveled into a lumpy puff of its former state. Another drying process follows and the result is a piece of yarn that is strong, weatherproof, heat-resistant and will not rot. Once the yarn has been thru the refining process, it can now be woven into a wearable garment.

Now the analogy…
The wool here represents our life and what we find comfortable about ourselves. This needs to be removed. God, our Master Shearer, has to have us in a tender vulnerable place of submission to begin His work. He goes right to the worst place first – the belly wool – a place we try so hard to hide from everyone else. The dirtiest dung spot within us is where He tends to begin. At some point in our lives, we have all gotten up from our seated position before the work was through. In the end, we must return to this place “belly up”, if you will, so His work may continue.

I think it’s the nakedness that occurs after the removal of our “wool”, our comfort zones that causes God’s process of refinement in us to take so long. None of us like to be still and certainly not in a seated position, on our rump leaning back to a point where we cannot move. People rarely willingly place themselves in this position of submission so that God can begin His work. Christ set the best example for us to follow: “…and like a lamb before the shearer is silent…” Acts 8:32. He was not afraid to stand before the Shearer because He was not ashamed in His nakedness ~ He did not have a comfort zone.

There is a picking and cleansing process that must occur. For some reason, we all struggle to keep “self” intact, hanging onto to our junk as long as we can. In a sense, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to do in this zone of comfort. But then comes the stripping…the “skirting” within our hearts comes quickly and is following by His lovely washing. Christ cleanses us of all the sin dirt we have collected over the years. He may even shake us from time to time too ~ those are the outer layers of the obvious. It is those times of shaking and picking thru the bits and pieces of ourselves we are fond of that we tend to shy away from. Our Master is always there to gently rub away any trace of impurity. It is done completely and yet He has just begun His great work!

The Son-Shine allows a time for His light to go through and permeate our very being. The gentle wind of the Holy Spirit breathes life into us as we are laid open before Him. “…for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed and nothing hidden that will not be known.” Matthew 10:26, NKJV. The drying time can be difficult because it is a time of waiting. No one likes waiting, especially when “you” are drying up the whole time. But there is a purpose in all of this ~ it is a time of preparation where something useful can be refined into something spectacular. Don’t get off the drying table!

God has to break out His Word, the hand cards, to do some separation and subsequent removal of anything not worthy to remain in His presence. “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Hebrews 4:12-13, NKJV.

Once God does some stripping within our lives, we all too often jump “off the table” and right into our openness, once again trying to do everything the old way. We are this roving now. We have been picked thru by God and found ready for the spinning, so why is it we try to put on our new life and do it ourselves? God has not yet completed the work and the intimate refinement is just beginning. Our foundation has to be firm, not something that will blow away with the winds of life.

The eye of the needle on a spinning wheel requires the wool to be twisted in order to pass thru it. We must become intertwined with Him in order to find the way of true life. “…narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Matthew 7:14, NKJV. It is God’s desire that we become one with Him. With Him at the wheel, there is no difference between the refined string and newly spun yarn. They are indistinguishable from one another. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one heart and mind.” John 10:30, The Message Remix.

Again, this provides us with another example of our own desire to “get on with it”. The moment we do something in our own strength, I sense we have dishonored Him. God continually puts us thru “the fire” (the heat of life) in order to purify us and purify our motives. This is big issue with the body of Christ today. Our motives must be pure! Do not be deceived in your own ability because it is nothing. When we allow God to twist us (getting uncomfortable) and refine us to the point where we fit thru the narrow gate, THEN He can really complete His grand design and plan for our lives. Our innermost spirit man learns to wait, without complaining, on God’s continual preparation and refinement. We must abide in Him! Jesus said the words, “…without Me you can do nothing” in John 15:5, where He illustrates that He is the Vine and we are the branches. The Vine is our source of life. The branches cannot take the place of the Vine, not ever! Dependency on our own ability leaves us stressed out, tired and worn out. Walking in need of our Lord always, within Him, provides the strength to endure anything. Obedience to Him, carried out thru Him, out of our love for Him is never exhausting.


So my prayer is this: Heavenly Father, I yield to You once again today. I have gotten up and gotten out of Your refinement process so many times ~ please forgive me! I repent from going about my own life and not laying down to you in every aspect ~ please forgive me! Thank you for being so patient with me and loving me throughout every step. I love you so much, Lord! To Your plans, I say Yes and Amen! To Your desires, I submit myself. Take me, Lord Jesus, and take me thru the refining that You must complete within me. I yield my will to Yours. Open my life and pick thru it, remove all the junk! Create Yourself within me where I can truly be in Your lovely image. Spin me, twist me and take me thru the narrow places that I must pass ~ I trust You completely. Weave my life into something that honors You and brings You along all the glory You are due. Everything I am and all that is within me is all for You. Help me, Lord, as I am nothing without You. I love you, Jesus.