She seeks wool and flax. . .

Those who know me are likely thinking, "ooo! she's found a great sale on yarn", or "oh no! she's found a great sale on yarn". But they would be wrong....well, not entirely wrong

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but that's not where I'm going today.
I do a lot of praying while I knit/crochet. I believe God gives us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4), that He puts those desires there. So given the desire to be creative [with yarn], I honor that when I am able to fulfill that desire by building my relationship with Him.  So back to the subject, "She seeks wool and flax. . ." you may or may not know this is from Proverbs - She seeks wool and flax And willingly works with her hands. (Proverbs 31:13) This morning I started exploring this, a "word study" as my pastor says, and I was pleasantly amused.
First that this section of the chapter (31: 10-31) is in some translations labeled "The Virtuous Wife".  I know that in this day and age men and women, husbands and wives being considered to have different qualities and roles is thought of as antiquated and no longer relevant. I wholeheartedly disagree with that.  What was virtuous for a wife in the Old Testament is still virtuous for a wife today. Applying this section of the bible to myself I went thru it verse by verse.  Bad idea! My objective was not how, in my opinion, I fall down on many of these virtues but to understand why God pointed me to this today.
What this passage taught me is there are many things we wives do, many things we are expected to do and why. Many of them have to do with providing for and nurturing our families...this is where the wool and flax come in.

¹³ She seeks wool and flax,

And willingly works with her hands.

Besides this part, there are several other references to making and providing clothing -

²¹ She is not afraid of snow for her household,
For all her household is clothed with scarlet.
²² She makes tapestry for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.

Scarlet and purple used as nouns is unusual but I know biblically these are often mentioned as offerings. To me that means they're special, expensive, not easy to come by; so mom/wife being able to clothe her family in them must give her great joy. I certainly get great joy in making and giving using even very ordinary materials.

Another verse that set me off looking was - 

¹⁹ She stretches out her hands to the distaff,

And her hand holds the spindle

I know a spindle is a spinning tool for twisting fibers together to make the thread or yarn. But what is the distaff? Hello Wikipedia!

[a tool] to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process.

 Wow, another spinning tool reference!  But I read further. . .

As an adjective the term distaff is used to describe the female side of a family.

How interesting! The female, the WIFE!  So claiming this revelation (or just in the weird way my mind works!) I take away from all of this:

There's the literal interpretation of the making and providing. 

But,the Bible is full of word pictures and non-literal meanings of words. So looking at this in the more interpretive sense - 

(31:13) gathering wool and flax is family and she works diligently to keep things in order because unspun fibers, if not tended to, can become quite unruly and eventually useless.

(31:19) her family is the fiber placed on the distaff; unspun individual strands; as they are pulled and twisted onto the spindle they become a single usable strand

(31:21) she doesn't fear the difficulties her family may face because she knows she's covered them with the best possible materials, teaching them from the Word

(31:22) her own covering is tapestry, a woven fabric using the finest material, then stitched over with many colors (experiences) making it very thick and durable; tapestry can withstand a lot of abuse without showing much wear.  This is what a wife needs for herself in order to continue with the rest for her family.

And the chapter ends with this - 

³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands,

And let her own works praise her in the gates

Whether the fruit be a hat, a scarf, a sweater or mittens or the children she raises or the husband she supports,  all this gives glory to God and will stand before her in His Kingdom!

May God Bless Your Stitches,

nance