I’ve been making my crocheted artworks for a long time. I created my first piece of this kind (pictured above) in 2009 when I was still a junior Fibers major at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Honestly, it seems like almost a lifetime ago. I considered myself a non-denominational Christian and I was long-distance-dating my high school sweetheart (now husband). I have learned and grown a lot since that time and I want this blog to take you along the process with me. You’ll see how my upcoming collection is the culmination of more than 13 years of development.

Back in 2008, I was fascinated by the ideas of sustainability, dignity of labor, and relationships between men and women, particularly in marriage. I knew the three were linked - if the way we treated the earth around us matters, then the relationships we have with each other also matter - but I didn’t quite have the words to connect them. Everyone in the Fibers building could agree: the more handmade, the better, and if we could all get more connected with the source of our food/clothing/material goods, we’d have a better appreciation and respect for the world around us and the people within it.

Those thoughts were all swirling around my head when I worked with wool for the first time. Connecting people to wool - one of the most foundational and versatile textile materials - became my goal. I was spending so much time with textile processes. I could feel myself coming alive as I created objects by the power of my own hands. It was enriching and life-giving. I was learning more than just textile techniques as I engaged my mind and body at once in the creation of something new.

All the while, my community of friends was collectively diving deeper into our faith. Most of them gravitated toward Calvinist theology. As my friends discussed the role of (or lack thereof) prayer, work, art, and life in light of this theology, I was wrestling with several questions, why do we pray? What does it mean to have a body? Where does art belong in the spiritual life? Do any of my actions in this life matter? What does it mean to be human? The beautiful reality that I had found within the Fibers classroom seemed to contradict my spiritual life.

I didn’t realize that I was actually working out these philosophical and theological concepts through my hands while I created that first crocheted artwork. While I worked, I was reading Sex God by Rob Bell. (Back in the sweet window of time when Rob Bell was the trendiest Christian on the internet with his NOOMA videos and before the publication of his controversial book, Love Wins). Do I suggest Sex God for entertaining reading? Yes. Do I recommend it for solid, deep theology? Absolutely not (you’ll read why not in later posts). In any case, it triggered a very interesting concept for me.

“This marriage between a man and woman…is about something much bigger than the relationship itself. It points beyond them to somebody else - to God.
The point of marriage isn’t marriage.
It’s a picture.
A display.
A window that you look through to something else.
A marriage has a mission.
…A marriage is designed to counter all of [the division in our culture]. Not to add to the brokenness of the world but to add to the ‘oneness’ of the world. This man and this woman who have given themselves to each other are supposed to give the world a glimpse of hope, a display of what God is like, a bit of echad on earth.” (Sex God, p. 152-153)

“So when it’s written that Adam and Eve were one flesh, their ‘echad flesh’ is actually a celebration of a million other things. Things that ought to be celebrated: God. Life. Creativity. Potential. Shared partnership in caring for the world. Strength for weakness, weakness for strength. A new family. The ongoing creation of the world.” (Sex God, p. 154)

What Rob Bell is saying here is, at the very least, interesting.

These passages and the overall concept confirmed what I had suspected - spiritual truths are experienced through our bodies. There is a connection between our soul and body and our body can be seen as a gift rather than a curse. When we engage both our minds and bodies, we open ourselves to something bigger.

Marriage is more than just a contract. The unity in marriage is the clearest picture of how we live out all of our relationships through our bodies. There’s a reason why marriage is so special and why things are reserved only for marriage. But how to express the integration of it all was still a mystery to me.

For this week, I’ll leave you to contemplate this:

“For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it,
even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.
‘For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.’
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.”
Ephesians 5:29-32 (emphasis mine)