"As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul." (1 Samuel 18:1)For over a year now, I've had a second career as a 'chef', having started a Bed and Breakfast with my wife. She is the host, I'm the cook. And I found that I'm pretty darn good at it.
What I love about cooking is the challenge of taking the uniqueness of each ingredient and 'fusing' the best of it with the best of another...and leaving something better (stronger, bolder and more wonderful) in its place. Fusion cooking is a style of cuisine that combines ingredients and techniques from different traditions, cultures and regions. While a culinary style now, I would say even that cuisine is naturally moving to a sort of 'oneness' as the world opens up over time and as chefs and home cooks break down tradition, culture and regional differences. But 'cooking' taken to its most simplest state is 'fusion', taking different individual ingredients and 'fusing' them together to create flavours stronger, bolder, more wonderful than each on its own.
'The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David..."
Knitting or weaving is the interlacing of threads to form fabric. Okay so I don't knit, it's a bit of a lost art replaced by today's machinery. But I draw two important points from this part of the passage. One, like cooking, knitting/weaving takes individual threads (ingredients) and interlaces them to create something new and more wonderful. An individual thread on its own is not very impressive, but threads (ingredients) in the hands of a weaver (chef) can be transformed into something amazing, a beautiful work of art. An amazing coat of many colours...or a soufflé.
"The soufflé isn't the soufflé, the soufflé is the recipe." (Clara Oswald, Doctor Who)
Making a soufflé is an art (or so I've been told as I haven't yet mustered the courage to try to make one). While the ingredients themselves are pretty simple/basic including egg yolks and egg whites, the recipe...which ingredients and how/when they're mixed...is the thing. After that, its a matter of faith. Pop it in the oven and hope it doesn't fall. The souffle isn't the souffle, the souffle is the recipe. Likewise, the knitting of souls between Jonathan and David. If we focus on the relationship only, we miss the knitting recipe or more-so the 'knitter' in the act of artful 'knitting'. Neither Jonathan nor David did the knitting, the Master Weaver did. It's His work of art, designed for His purpose, but ultimately for our good.
A soufflé ultimately falls whether its in the oven or left to sit for a time. The pinnacle of success is to have your souffle puffed up for 10 minutes or so. What we create can be beautiful in its time, but temporary. Souffles fall, fabrics disintegrate. Even the deep friendship between Jonathan and David was temporary as the each met his grave. But the recipe in the hands of the chef is the thing. The Master Weaver that knit the souls of these two men continues to knit souls together and unto Himself everlasting ("the church").
But knit together how? In Love. In Colossians 2:2 Paul talks about the church is given oneness in the Spirit saying "...Having been knit together IN LOVE...". Our hearts are knit together in love and its then expressed through love. "Jonathan loved him [David] as his own soul." The souffle is the recipe. Love gives Love out of Love. And Love brings unity, oneness. God's act of knitting souls together continues as the hearts of believers are interlaced together as part of His redemption plan. Patches today. An infinite tapestry and everlasting soufflé tomorrow. The soufflé is the recipe.
