One Stitch at a Time

One stitch at a time. It can be tedious.

Cross-stitching a gift for a new baby on the way. Something special. Praying for the baby, one stitch at a time. Listening to God for this baby. This precious baby.

Relationships build slowly. One step at a time. One word. One gesture. As the years pass, a picture emerges. A friendship that spans time. A sibling love. A romantic love. One kindness at a time.

‘For as much as you did something good for someone else, you did it for me,’ Jesus said, loosely paraphrased. I usually think of those marginalised individuals who need help: we reach out to the Christ in them.

But just now I realised it’s all of our relationships. Each of us needs one another. This is how Jesus is building his church.

One stitch at a time. It can be tedious.

Freedom

Faced with a blank piece of virtual paper, I am free to choose the words I want to use. I am free to put them in whatever order I want, to convey pretty much whatever idea I have, or what story I want to tell, without fear of reprisals.

We have been made in the image of God, the God who made the heavens and earth, the great creator. We are by default creative beings. Some regimes stifle creativity by dictating the ideas one is allowed to express. But by default, we are creative, and God is in control, the great inspiration.

The truth will out, despite all efforts to suppress it.

As for me, I feel almost tongue-tied, inadequate, and yet compelled to string words together to encourage and inspire and create. Living in a free country, it feels like a responsibility as well as a joy. I do not take our freedom for granted.

Re-Boot

I’m not computer-savvy enough to have ever done this, but I know in theory that if an update goes wrong, or for some other reason, it is possible to leapfrog backwards and reboot the computer to a time prior to the mistake happening.

I can’t help thinking how lovely it would be if that were a possibility in life. So that once we saw the confusion and mayhem a certain decision could cause, we could reboot, make different choices and opt for a better outcome.

By the grace of God, we can reboot our own lives by surrendering to him and giving our lives to Jesus, but the consequences of wrong decisions, of past sin, don’t usually disappear (… though he does work miracles sometimes). The difference is, though, that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, walks with us through those consequences.

I pray that the two nations close to my heart will give themselves to the Lordship of Christ so that he can walk us through the consequences of our past decisions. Re-boot us, Lord. Send revival, Lord. Now would be a great time…

Thawed by the Son

Minus 10C here in the northeast. Frost turns the fields rock hard. On the barbed wire, a strand of grass waves stiffly in the growing wind. Frozen. Formerly flexible, but in the icy blast, frozen and hard. Brittle. Easily broken.

Circumstances can plunge our lives into arctic atmospheres that freeze our spirits in fear or anxiety. Long years can make our spirits brittle too, easily offended, easily bruised, easily broken.

The Son brings life, brings warmth, thaws what is frozen and softens hard hearts. It’s easy to get caught in an unexpected, icy blast but today I choose to bathe in the sun of righteousness.

Blue January

January.

Yesterday was Blue Monday, apparently.

The problem for us all is that it is easy to root our moods in circumstances and place rather than in Jesus. January in this household means time to renew house insurance, travel insurance, pay tax, figure out US tax … if I base my mood on what I am trying to accomplish this month, it will definitely become Blue January.

I lift my eyes to the hills. My help is in the name of the Lord. Today I will trust in him. I will cast all my cares on him, because he cares for me. I will not worry about tomorrow but focus on today. My God meets all my needs in Jesus Christ.

And yours.

Reflections

The colour drains as the temperature drops. The landscape hardens to a steely grey, reflecting the frozen ground. What does it take for spiritual fervour to grow cold? It can seem as innocent as a busy schedule. It’s worth the fight to keep stoking the fires of faith with prayer and Bible reading, lest the life drain and Jesus’ reflection in me fades away altogether.

Royal Robes

A thin white blanket covers the fields, hiding the imperfections. The royal robes Jesus gives me covers me, though my imperfections are still all too visible. My ungracious words reveal them. My unkind actions. My failure to act. My critical thoughts. I can’t seem to keep those royal robes on.

But I trust him to continue to help me. He never gives up.  He never abandons or leaves me. One day I will see him face to face, and the royal robes, which I will never deserve, will stay on, by his grace and mercy.

Not as it seems

The trees stand denuded and stark against a wintry grey-blue sky. To all intents and purposes, dead to the world. Beneath the soil, though, roots may be stirring, seeking fresh sources of water and nutrition.

People are not always what they seem. May I be prayerfully compassionate and gracious to everyone, as the Father is to me.

The winter sun

The winter sun hangs low on the horizon, casting long shadows across the ploughed field. There is a rosy tinge to the sepia of winter, highlighting the brittle branches of scrub in the boggy field beyond.

The telephone poles stand at attention, one side bathed in morning sunlight, the other swathed in shadow.

I am grateful for the sun, winter and summer. Face turned to the Son, I sing his praises and want to walk in his light throughout this day. I am aware of the darkness behind me, but behind me is where I intend to keep it, with God’s help.

Lazy, hazy...

Fruit of the lazy hazy days of summer, in the dead of winter. I’m thawing out some of the delicious wild cherries which were harvested in such abundance six months ago, to put in a pie for the weekend.

How important it is to store up the memories, the good words, during the easy times, so that when the cold winds bite, we have something to savour.

Feeding time

How do they know?

The bird feeders hung empty. The driveway was devoid of breadcrumbs, too. I filled them, hung them, scattered breadcrumbs (not from my homemade bread…) and hey, presto! Within a minute the place was jumpin’ with feathered friends tucking into breakfast.

How did the word get out so quickly? Were they all hunkered down nearby, hungrily hoping I might show up and quick to respond when I did? Were they nearly despairing, knowing there was every chance I just might not show up with nuts and seeds? Is there a birdsong frequency I just can’t hear, that put out the call: Food’s up!

I have just come out of the prayer window. God never leaves the spiritual feeders hanging empty. There’s a feast if I take the time with him. There are always crumbs scattered through the day, too, and I can enjoy him if my spiritual antennae are out. He is a faithful God, who never lets us down.

Prayer

A flash of movement on an upper branch of the rowan tree drew my attention. A woodpecker hammered away at the wood, hoping to find nourishment. Suddenly he lifted off and flew to the bird-feeder, where there were some easy pickings.

Tried my new bread-maker yesterday, a thoughtful Christmas gift. I had to breathe deep to read the directions, do all the prep, and then struggled a bit with the electronic controls, which failed to respond to my finger’s pressure until suddenly they did. I’m sure I’ll figure that out.

The bread exuded a gloriously delicious smell all afternoon and finally pinged to indicate it was finished. Wholewheat bread: I knew it is harder to get it to rise but I thought that this machine would be the panacea, so I was disappointed with the result. Tastes fine, but next time I’ll make a large rather than medium loaf, maybe mixing the flours and hope it produces a bigger loaf.

The temptation is to fly off to the supermarket and buy what’s on the shelf, full of additives and expensive though it is. I will continue to experiment with this bread-maker, though, hoping to figure out the best way to get the result I’m expecting.

Spiritually, it’s tempting to live off the sound-bites of theologians and writers who can word things so cleverly and meaningfully. But the Lord knows what I need at this moment, and it’s as I hang with him that I receive the real food to carry me through the day. It’s called prayer, but don’t let the word put you off.

Bright

Against the winter sepia, the cock pheasant’s plumage is vibrant, glorious. He struts carefully up the driveway as soon as the coal truck has gone. He sweeps into the yard every day, at least once, to check out the seed which has fallen from the hanging bird feeders and see if any new breadcrumbs litter the tarmac.

Life isn’t easy in the frozen north, but as the landscape fades into monochrome, the pheasant keeps its bright colours.

This  morning I breathe deep, inhaling God’s love and life and presence, so that whatever sepia world I may walk through, others will see the glory of our loving Father.

Hard-bitten

The frost bites hard. Minus ten this morning. Denuded trees stand frozen and bare. Birds hop over the icy earth, sharp beaks pecking, searching for food.

Winter is here, but thankfully not forever. The shortest day has passed and we are on the trajectory towards warmth, growth and renewal.

Events in life can plunge us into winter. They can freeze our ability to relate to others, to communicate, to share and be transparent, to allow ourselves to be vulnerable. It’s important to allow the love of God to massage the hurts and sorrows, restoring a normal blood flow and strengthening our faith in him. However hard it is, we can make the choice to let God thaw the core of our beings where the hurt has taken up residence. Otherwise, there is a danger that we move forward outwardly, apparently moving into a springtime after a winter event, while inwardly we remain frozen in fear. 

There is no fruit for others if winter prevails in our core.

Fear is our greatest enemy, driving out faith and hope and trust in the God who is love. Fear cripples relationships and destroys lives.  

Do not be afraid, God says. I have come to give you life in all its fullness, Jesus promises. The joy of the Lord is your strength, not a joy we can work up in ourselves but a joy which he gives as we ask and wait.

May the winter of our sorrows give way to the spring of hope and promise, restoring life and light and reviving relationships.