Being Knit Together in Love

 

The apostle Paul tells the Colossians that he wants their hearts to be comforted, being knit together in love. I want to look at how this happens. 

One of the main things that will knit people together is commonality. Having things in common draws people together. It's the whole point of social media groups. People create groups to share common interests, political views, religious views, or even tragedies. Support groups for common things people have gone through such as addictions or grieving a loss or parenthood of special needs children are all over social media sites. Just this week I joined 3 groups on MeWe for homesteading ideas, home decorating and cooking with cast iron. There are tons of ways to connect with folks of similar backgrounds and interests. Whatever your heart and soul is searching for, you can find a group to help you connect with someone seeking the same. 

Another thing that knits people together is tragedy. Families bond together over the loss of a loved one. Communities do the same thing as well as when a natural disaster hits or some other tragedy. When the shooting at Columbine happened or the Oklahoma City bombing or Hurricane Katrina or 9-11 or many other tragedies, the local communities, states and even the country as a whole mourned together and pitched in to help. For a time anyway, people were knit together in love and concern. 

A third way that knits people together is the bonding together against a common evil. This is what happened during the Revolutionary War. A group of states that, quite frankly, didn't necessarily care for one another individually bonded together to rise up against a tyrant nation. Police shows are common on TV and represent this thought perfectly. The partners on the police forces bond together against the "bad guy" criminals to stop them from further harm and try to bring justice to victims. 

In the case of Paul's letter, he was referring to the commonality of the saving grace and knowledge of Christ. He wanted them to take comfort in the knowledge that they shared the promises of God. Christians today can and are knit together in love because of our shared love of the Lord. Whatever differences we may have in theology, doctrine or ideals, we still share the fact that we have trusted Jesus as Savior and will share eternity with each other and God. 

Today you can probably think of someone with whom you will forever be knit together in love due to one of my reasons mentioned above. Smile when you think of them and maybe even reach out to them and let them know you thought of them.