Faithful One

Fresh paint, new curtains, and a computer desk centred at the bedroom window. Today I sat at my new work station for writing, and wrote. 

I tried not to be too distracted by the cows meandering past, though I confess that the one walking with a limp tugged at my heart and I wondered if I ought to run out into the field and get her number and call the farmer. I re-focused on my screen. Then there was the tractor in the field beyond, literally ploughing up and down, back and forth, with a very energetic collie racing alongside, back and forth, back and forth, and a swarm of seagulls enjoying the bounty of the broken field. 

There’s no internet up there, so I’m excited to see the difference it makes to my writing. No distractions of email, facebook, blogs!

Come away with me, Jesus said to his disciples a few times. I sense he’s been saying that to me lately, so I hope it’s up to that new writing room where I may be especially open to his inspiration. Watch this space.

Curtains

           

The last gasp in redecorating our bedroom is making the new curtains. The others have done service for 27 years so it’s time...

We’ve had the fabric for a few weeks now, and finally today I got down to it. I have been avoiding tackling the job because it involves sewing two curtains each one and a half widths wide – meaning I need to be careful about getting seams matching, nap going the right way, and so on. 

Somehow I wasn’t as careful in my preparation as I intended to be, and spent several minutes pondering which was the outside, which the inside, of the fabric. Eventually I decided that if it is that difficult to tell, it can’t really matter much! And anyway, we’re the only ones in the bedroom usually, and usually we’re asleep when we’re there.

So, I’ve now done the cutting, done the machine stitching, and am about to iron in the hems and sides for both curtain and lining. Then I will sew the curtain hems by hand, because that’s what I always do. I know it takes longer. I know it means my left hand, already prone to carpal tunnel, will be wakening me up in the night with ‘pins and needles’ – as they say in the UK – or ‘asleep’ as I would say. But I will do it anyway because that’s the look I like.

Preparation is crucial. I know that from many years of painting rooms. I know that from cooking. I know that from sewing curtains. 

How much more should I know that in spiritual terms? Now is the time to prep for eternity. If we’re going to be able to discern between the ‘right’ and the ‘wrong’ side of many decisions we have to make, we need to have something to distinguish them by. It would have helped in cutting the curtains if I had marked the ‘right’ sides with a pin. It helps me in my lifestyle choices to know what God thinks about things. 

There is always a right and a wrong side. It’s not always easy to tell the difference. But unlike for my curtains, in life, it always does matter.