The less I’m at home, the more I appreciate time with my family. This father’s day I cried like a baby at church, so thankful for these men & how they have shown an example of God’s love as heavenly father, aching knowing that there are countless who are fatherless.
^ they’ve got my back.
One of the projects I started to keep myself creating this summer is studying a word a week from Galatians 5, and then create something based on it. So far I’ve studied walk, love, and joy. This week’s word was peace, and this is the first one I have liked enough to actually put here.
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I have a journal dedicated as my “craft journal” & it is the place where I end up doing most of my creative exploration. I printed out a few of them to hang in our house the other day, and the printer went crazy, so these printed twice. If you’d like one of ’em, comment or like the post or something and then one of you folks (assuming any of you actually want one of them) will receive a 10×13-ish print of these here crafts on cardstock.
Now dear Christians, some of you pray night and day to be branches of the true Vine; you pray to be made all over in the image of Christ. If so, you must be like him in giving . . . “though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor” . . . Objection 1. “My money is my own.” Answer: Christ might have said, “My blood is my own, my life is my own” . . . then where should we have been? Objection 2. “The poor are undeserving.” Answer: Christ might have said, “They are wicked rebels . . . shall I lay down my life for these? I will give to the good angels.” But no, he left the ninety-nine, and came after the lost. He gave his blood for the undeserving. Objection 3. “The poor may abuse it.” Answer: Christ might have said the same; yea, with far greater truth. Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet; that most would despise it; that many would make it an excuse for sinning more; yet he gave his own blood. Oh, my dear Christians! If you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely, to the vile and poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be. It is not your money I want, but your happiness. Remember his own word, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” [B.B Warfield]
“Jacob must have shuddered at the thought of leaving the land of his father’s sojourning, and dwelling among heathen strangers. It was a new scene, and likely to be a trying one: who shall venture among couriers of a foreign monarch without anxiety? Yet the way was evidently appointed for him, and therefore he resolved to go. This is frequently the position of believers now—they are called to perils and temptations altogether untried: at such seasons let them imitate Jacob’s example by offering sacrifices of prayer unto God, and seeking His direction; let them not take a step until they have waited upon the Lord for His blessing: then they will have Jacob’s companion to be their friend and helper. How blessed to feel assured that the Lord is with us in all our ways, and condescends to go down into our humiliations and banishments with us! Even beyond the ocean our Father’s love beams like the sun in its strength. We cannot hesitate to go where Jehovah promises His presence; even the valley of deathshade grows bright with the radiance of this assurance. Marching onwards with faith in their God, believers shall have Jacob’s promise. They shall be brought up again, whether it be from the troubles of life or the chambers of death. Jacob’s seed came out of Egypt in due time, and so shall all the faithful pass unscathed through the tribulation of life, and the terror of death. Let us exercise Jacob’s confidence. “Fear not,”is the Lord’s command and His divine encouragement to those who at His bidding are launching upon new seas; the divine presence and preservation forbid so much as one unbelieving fear.
I’m coping with missing all my friends who have left town this summer by making some postcards to send their way — some of them are working at camp, doing internships, or spending time at home with family & friends. Here’s the first round:
I have a lovely new space for crafting & I’m finding it hard to move from this seat.
My grandfather works precisely; he measures and re-measures each piece of wood before he cuts it. I am imprecise and sloppy; I say mark the wood and if it looks right, go ahead with cutting. He sands at each uneven edge; I say just leave it as it is.
He works in what we call “the building” surrounded by tools and relics of the last decades of his life — antique fishing lures line the shelf along with pieces and parts to who knows what. In the same shed is his mother’s restored Ford, a leather bag of old golf clubs, a tractor, and gardening supplies.
It seems, somehow, he knows exactly where everything is. He shuffles around until he miraculously recovers what he was looking for from all the seeming disorder, and he goes back to work with his quick but careful movements. I say I’d like to learn to use the saw, he says I’d better not since he’s nipped his fingertips so many times he’s lost feeling of them. I look at his hands, aged by the sun and scarred by skin cancer, hands that garden and fish and cook and serve ceaselessly.
He gestures for me to hand him the next piece, and pauses to fuss at what seems to me the most minute error.
I am reminded of how he has always been concerned with getting things right. How many times can I remember him telling me to slow down when whipping up some kind of dessert in the kitchen, or how many times he’s taken the time to notice the smallest changes in my facial expression and ask what’s on my mind?
I know the time I have with him isn’t endless, that time is greedy, and that these days are rare. We finish our project and I say goodbye for now, wishing for once that time would just slow down a little and let me stay right there in that little white house on the hill.
[I hope you’re intrigued as to what we were making in there (okay, he did all of the work.) Come back soon to see the finished product! …Really, I have about a trillion projects I’m working on this summer that I hope to share with you! God has been so good to give me some fantastic opportunities to stay creative this summer.]
surviving my craziest semester, finals week, moving & settling into the city house.
my sister turned 12 today. how did that happen?
I thought this story was a beautiful illustration of this idea — of God using the most challenging and difficult circumstances for His glory: http://vimeo.com/38033654
In my dreams, I’m an art major and people pay me to make crafts. My dream came true when my roommate Leslie asked if I could use my amateur design skills to design her a save the date. This isn’t the final, but a screen shot of the work in progress.
Congratulations David & Kelli! Thanks for letting me use my mediocre skills & be a part of your big day!
“Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write [it] was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, ‘Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'” — Anne Lamott
things as they are. 