My Birthday Verse

I can remember as a young child thinking that I’d be too old to live into the next century, but in retrospect I was still considered middle age when Y2K arrived.  I usually don’t mind having a birthday, but this year I wasn’t just a year older, I wasn’t just a decade older; I was now a senior, at least according to the discount coupon at my favorite store.  I’d weathered becoming a grandmother without “feeling my age”, but this was different. 

So on my birthday morning I cuddled up in the recliner, with a hot cup of tea, to have a devotional time.  I’ve been reading a chronological Bible and I was so struck by the following verse that I’ve decided to make it my “verse for the year”.  Perhaps I’ll embroider it on a wall hanging, or on dish towels, they’ll at least wear out before I do. 

 

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.

Last year I read a book that was in obvious Scriptural error.  As I critiqued it, read the critiques of others, and read alternative sources I was startled to realize the large degree to which my thinking had been influenced by this same philosophy.  Of course it was more subtle and less extreme, but still predicated on a misunderstanding of scriptures, the traditions of men and the principles of the world rather than being based on Christ.

I hope you’ll follow my blog as I explore some of these subtle philosophies that took me captive and colored my world before I became an oh-so-wise senior citizen. J

            

God's Angle

I finally decided to get back to a quilting project I hadn’t worked on for months.  I gathered the now rumpled fabrics from the pile on the floor and ironed each one, layering them onto a couple of coat hangers hooked over an old floor lamp.  Merrily I pieced together a few blocks in my embroidery hoop and then didn’t get back to it again for a week or so.  I was probably distracted by having to clean the house and cook a few meals.  When I finally found time to work on the project again I couldn’t find one of the fabrics.  Obviously it was time to clean the sewing room, so I pulled up some teaching tapes and tackled the job.  Days later I still hadn’t found the fabric and the room was cleaner than any sewing room deserves to be.  Ok, so I didn’t wash and polish the floor, but I did sweep, even though that obviously wouldn’t help me find my missing fabric.  Every day I relooked in places I’d already looked.  So one day I look again in the cabinet where I keep a shelf of quiltable fabrics getting on my hands and knees to look from a different angle, up rather than down.  It wasn’t there.  But as I turn to get up off my knees I see it peeking out from under one of the fabrics hanging on the coat hanger on the old lamp where I’d placed it after ironing it a month ago.  Yes, I’d looked there first.

            It was a poignant reminder that it’s from our knees looking up that we’re best able to see from the angle God has for us.

God’s design

Three years ago I took a beginning quilting class where one of our projects was a lap size “trip around the world” quilt.  I chose fabrics from my stash and added a couple from the shop.  Coincidentally the fabrics and size were suitable for a baby girl, and my daughter was pregnant with our first grandchild.  By the time I finished the quilt I needed to start another one because our Veteran’s day grandchild was a boy.  So I wrapped the first quilt in one of those space saving bags and sucked out the air.  Three years after I chose those fabrics for that quilt I was finally able to present it to our first granddaughter, Leah, born on her due date, Valentine’s Day.  The fabric I used for the back of the quilt and what appears to be a solid pink on the front is actually printed with hearts!  Someday as Leah cuddles in her quilt she’ll know she’s loved by her Grammy and her heavenly Father who knew her long before she was even conceived.