living gossamer.

  Atop a pillar of living green matter rests a sphere of gossamer, waiting for the wind. Waiting to be blown across a field of living green matter. Waiting for their hard seed cases to sink beneath the earth's surface. Waiting for a winter long rest. Then spring will call, and after they have fallen and died they will come back. Green flags will unfurl from the earth and golden sunlight will grow from among them. And when the light dies among the flags, another pillar of green living matter will grown topped by another sphere of gossamer. 

Building Babel

  The story of the Tower of Babel is probably familiar to anyone who has spent some of their time in Sunday School. It takes place after the worldwide flood, when everyone on the earth spoke the same language. The Lord commanded the people of the world to scatter over the face of the earth. Instead, they disobediently stayed in one place. Together they sought to build a tower that would reach up to the heavens and show the following generations how great they were. Because of their pride and disobedience, the Lord confused their language and caused them to scatter over the earth, and the tower remains unbuilt to this day.
  Since then, God has allowed mankind to build some incredible things, things which far outweigh the planned glory of the Tower of Babel. Yesterday, my family and I watched a documentary about the space shuttle and the projects it was used for. Projects like the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. What is the Tower of Babel to all of that? We as people have not made things that simply reach up to the heavens. We have gone and touched them. We see them in ways the men of old could not have grasped.
  And the thing is that God lets us. He did not say no to our wondering exploration. He let us make things that defy imagination. God said no to a disobedient pile of rocks, and yes to technological wonders that show how great He is.

What I did this Week: Its not over yet.

  Time flies with increasing speed as I get older. I really hate to think of how fast it will go when I'm forty, or eighty. So here is my week.

  Sunday night I made muffins for Monday morning breakfast.

 

  Monday I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a bunch of craft stuff for my craft box.

 

  Then my little brothers and I made some monsters.

 

In the evening I made pizza and then babysat my brothers and sister.

 

Wednesday night I made pretzel rolls for dinner.

 





 



Thursday we had twice baked potatoes.

 

And my brothers caught this prehistoric looking creature.

 

Friday I started a flower girl dress for my sister to wear to my cousin's wedding.

 

  Friday evening brought this beautiful sunset.

 

And this evening, I am going to try to finish reading The Book of Lost Tales Pt 1.

 

 

And so went (and goes) my week.









 

raindrop beads

Trapped, for a short time in their existence, on a filament of silk.

Beads of liquid glass, capturing miniscule worlds for a moment before they slip to the ground and their being ends.

Jonah's God and Mine

  There is a tendency, with me anyways, to think of God in two parts. He was the just and holy God of the Old Testament, and now He is the loving, compassionate, and intimate God of the New Covenant. God is unchanging. While He is new every morning, that is simply because we are for the first time seeing a facet of His character we could not before comprehend. The God I know is just as just and holy as He was thousands of years ago. And the God the Israelites knew was just as loving and compassionate as He is today.
  For the past few months, I have been reading through the prophets. While they are proclamations of judgment, they also echo with whispers of mercy and coming hope. And after reading the book of Jonah, I cannot help but think that the mercy of God was plainly seen by His people.
  Most are familiar with the story of Jonah. He was a prophet who was given a message of judgment to proclaim the people of Nineveh, the enemies of Israel. Instead of following the Lord's command, Jonah fled. After a major wake-up call (which I will not go into right now) Jonah obeyed the Lord's command and went to Nineveh, and proclaimed to them the message he was given. When the people of Nineveh heard Jonah's message of judgment, they repented of their sins and the Lord showed them mercy.
  This is the part where the story get interesting. After proclaiming the message of judgment Jonah went and camped outside of Nineveh, waiting for God to punish the sinful people. God did not, however, punish the people of Nineveh because of their repentance. So Jonah went and moped outside of Nineveh, and he was moping because of God's mercy. Jonah knew that God was full of mercy and compassion, and he did not want to give his enemies a message of judgment because if they repented God would show them mercy.
  Today, God is still the same God He was then. Though we as people deserve punishment for our many sins, God wants to show us His great love and mercy. And all we have to do is humble ourselves before Him and repent of our sins. He is faithful and He shows us a great love we could never deserve.

painting.

  This afternoon after school, my little brothers, my sister and I painted toilet paper tubes. The intent was for them to be spaceships, but I think their identity is free to be decided by the viewer.

homesick.

  We are born homesick. Looking for a land we have never known. Sometimes we are given glimpses of the world we unknowingly ache to see. In the roar of thunder as lightening rends the sky and water baptizes the earth. Or in the wild roll of the ocean as it washes the land away. Or in the midnight burning of a hundred-million suns. We are struck, almost by a memory of something we once knew. There is a wonderful and terrible feeling of hollowness, a feeling that we are not yet home.

  It is true. As long as we wander the crust of this sun baked earth, we and trying to find our home. And home is not here. It is in a place we do not know. But before we go home, we must come to grips with the fact that this is a far country. We are homesick. We are not home.

What I did this Week: Yes, I am a Nerd

  This post is not going to have an over abundance of pictures because I did not take to many this week. But here goes.
 
  Tuesday, I went to TJ Maxx and bought this sweater. The original price was $130 and I got it for $12.

  Wednesday morning, I woke up and made buttermilk coffee cake for breakfast, and it was pretty good.

  Friday was my Mom's birthday, so I made trillionaire bars. They are bars which consist of a brownie layer, a cookie-dough layer, and a chocolate layer. I found them rather disappointing.

 

  My Maw-Maw made a blue-velvet birthday cake.

 

  And I bought the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings.

 

 I did not watch them, however, because Friday evening I started to feel very sick. And I'm still sick. But I'm sure I will get better, and that was my week.

Without Time

  There is so much of God that I cannot understand. Of course, He exceeds human comprehension and I never will be able to understand Him any measurable degree. However, certain facets of His character fall into the realm of comprehension. At least to an extent. As a human made in the image of God, I see in myself and in others, faint glimmers of His character. In the most imperfect ways, mankind expresses love, jealousy, patience and wrath among other things. So when I learn of God's attributes, I can recognize some them, though I cannot understand the height and depth and width of them.
  Lately, I have been thinking about how God is eternal. That, I cannot understand. My life is measured by time. I have known nothing but the constraints of the clock. God is free from time. To Him a day is a thousand years, and thousand years is day. It means that my life may flash before Him in the blink of an eye. And at the same time, He can stretch my moments of suffering out and show me ages of love and comfort. God is not held by the bonds that tie me to life. He is so much greater than everything I can fit into my little head. God is without time.

it is enough.

It is enough.
But why?
Why am I satisfied in Christ?
Why do I need no other claim?
In this world of madness, why do so many reject the only thing that makes any sense?
The only thing to which I can cling with sure faith.
I know this world will not satisfy me.
That I was made to know and obey and glorify Christ.
Why has He chosen to open my eyes to the truth and close the eyes of others?
Why is Christ not enough for others when to me He has become everything?
The truth was made to be found.
But it does not have to be accepted.
Why reject the truth though?
It is a wall that a body will keep running into if they ignore it.
I only want the truth, even when it is hard.
I do not need anything but Christ.
His love and grace and the salvation that He has given.
It is enough.

What I did this Week: A Birthday and a Surprise

  This week has been fun, and busy, and surprising. First of all, after what seemed like ages of the most miserable weather conceivable, the sun came out.

 

  Tuesday evening, I babysat my brothers and tried to make chocolate coated popcorn. It was pretty good.

 

  I had not planned on anything happening Wednesday. Then my friend Karissa "happened to be in the area" so she came over in the afternoon. We sat down to lunch and my friend Rachel, who lives in Chicago, walked in the door. I was completely blown away. It was a really fun surprise.

 

  Thursday was my twentieth birthday, and one of my brother's gave me this lovely poster.

 

  Friday, I started the first baby outfit of the year.

 

  Then in the evening, some friends came over and we celebrated my birthday.

 

  After they left, I stayed up with my little brothers and we watched The Fellowship of the Ring, and I cried. And that was my week.

 

A Single Girl's Thoughts on Marriage

  This already promises to be a weird post, as I have no experience in a marriage relationship (or any romantic relationship for that matter). With that disclaimer I will begin. Yesterday, I was in a fabric store flipping through pattern books to figure out what kind of flower girl dress I should make for my sister to wear to my cousin's wedding. A wedding catalog caught my eye so I cracked it open to see what ideas it held. It did not take long for me to get sucked into the images of exotic locations, fantastic decorations, sumptuous dresses, and beautiful people. Weddings can be expensive to say the least.
  When I came to the end, I closed the magazine, sad. Not because I was lamenting my gloriously single state, but because of society's bent view of love and marriage. Granted, I flipped through a wedding catalog, not a marriage catalog. Still, all the beauty and romance of those weddings passed away in one twenty-four hour period. I was left with the feeling that those weddings were mere celebrations of romance, not marriage.
  Romance is a good thing, but it is not the point of marriage. Marriages based on ethereal, fleeting feelings usually crumble. A body has to commit to marriage for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, till death do you part. And the ultimate purpose of marriage is to glorify Christ. To portray Christ's relationship with His bride, the church. Marriage is a sanctifying process, just like every other relationship. Romance is gift God grants with marriage, but when you add real life to marriage, romance will not make all your troubles disappear. Marriage is a commitment. And those are my thoughts on the subject.

Twenty Things for Twenty Years

 

  Two decades. They really do not take up that much time. My entire life-span fits in twenty years, and I have not lived very long. So here are twenty things I have learned over the past twenty years and in no particular order.

1. God is good. That does seem incredibly cliché, but it is true. In the past years I have seen much of both bad and good, and I can say without a doubt, God is always good.

2. Nothing worth having ever comes easy.

3. Exercise makes you feel confident, strong, and alive.

4. Not everyone will be your best friend, and you should not be friends with everyone.

5. Human beings crave love.

6. Everyone is once in a lifetime.

7. Laziness does not get you anywhere.

8. Obedience is worth the trouble.

9. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

10. The world is a beautiful place.

11. Coffee is the Elixir of Life .

12. Sibling are simultaneously the most terrible and wonderful human beings.

13. It is a good thing to play in the ocean.

14. Climbing mountains is rewarding.

15. Whole worlds dwell between the covers of books.

16. The best fiction drips truth.

17. There is truth.

18. We can pick our own theme song.

19. Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

20. While I may make a mess of myself, there is a Beautiful Savior who makes me new in spite of myself.

No Regrets

  It seems like the right time for a post like this, it being the beginning of the year and all. I want to live a life free of regret. Because of the goody-goody I am, I have not found myself in regrettable situations, and yet I realize, I have done many things of which I am ashamed. I do not love people to the extent I should. I do not life my live whole-heartedly for the God I claim to serve. I am a very self-absorbed person. A couple of nights ago, I was reading through the book of Romans and I came across these verses, "When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap is eternal life." (Romans 6:20-22).
 Living for God is hard. It means putting yourself last. It often means giving up what you want for what is right. But I can honestly say I have yet to regret giving up what I want to do the right thing. And the beauty of God's grace is that I do not have to sacrifice on my own. I have the help of the Holy Spirit everyday. I will make mistakes again and again. I am only a human being. As a slave to righteousness though, I can live a life that honors God, I can be holy. Because of my Heavenly Father's work in me, I can live a life without regret.

What I did this Week: Hello 2015!

   This past week has been a busy one. Before they left, I spent a lot of time with my cousins. Some of the pictures in this post are from the 27th of December, which was last week. But they were funny so I decided to put them in. Like this one of me singing, "Let It Go." Brothers are always there to make sure not one embarrassing moment of life is missed.

 

  Here's my partner in crime and I.

 

  Sunday evening, my cousins and I made oreo balls which you can read about here.

 

  Then Monday evening, I made chicken noodle soup.

 

  New Year's Eve, we had a great big salad. 

  And popped fireworks and played with sparklers.

  New Year's Day I looked like this.

 

  Yesterday, the weather was this miserable fog. It looked cool though.

 

  I also made a friend yesterday.

 

  And today the sun is shining! (Cue the Hallelujah chorus). 

 

  That was my week!