Paper Pages

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0400

I dipped my toe in the papercrafting water a year or two ago with some minibooks. Then this spring I started making more cards, and my minibooks got more papery and less digital. This summer I made my very first (I’m purposely ignoring my horrible attempts at traditional scrapping many years ago, when I made a very ugly baby book for my youngest and gave up scrapbooking FOREVER) traditional paper layouts.

I’m having fun. I find it more difficult than digital scrapbooking, and it definitely takes me longer. But each subsequent page gets a little easier, and that’s encouraging, and I like the results quite a bit. I’m doing a lot of experimenting with techniques--using spray inks, painting, even sewing (today’s experiment, seen right above).

I’m still doing some digital pages. I did these recently:

Going forward, I can see myself doing a pretty even mix of digital and paper layouts, but only time will tell. It’s all fun, and it all stretches me creatively, and I see no reason to choose one way or the other.

Summer's End

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:18:08 -0400

I know it’s still August, and though cool outside today, I fully expect a fair amount of warm weather yet, but when my girl goes back to college, it’s the end of summer. She left this morning, and I miss her already. Her summer was full of work (at the bookstore in town and for her dad here at home), crafting (she made an altered book for a girl she mentors who was turning 13), and enjoying people. Being all together again after the school year was my favorite thing about this summer: fun play together in the car on the way to Cape Cod, watching Lord of the Rings together, conversations about church and God. I love being with my family, and while we do OK without Aimée at home, it’s just not the same.

(Companionable sibling feet.)

(Packing yesterday.)

(And leaving today.)

What Heaven Is Like

Sat, 21 Aug 2010 08:55:56 -0400

Here’s another bit from The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung:

“Think about the description of heaven on earth in books like Isaiah and Revelation or in Jesus’ parables or in Paul’s epistles. It is staggering. Life everlasting means reward, inheritance, blessing, rule, feasting, security, no pain, no mourning, no disappointment, no struggle, no fear. It means a lush garden, a beautiful city, a lasting foundation, a street of gold, a sea of crystal, and a wall of precious stones. It means a wedding celebration, a tree of life, living water, manna from heaven, unending light, and unceasing worship before HIm who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb.

“The blessedness of eternal life is like savoring your favorite food, drinking your favorite drink, laughing with your favorite friends; it’s like seeing your wife on your wedding day sparkling in her overpriced dress and grinning from ear to ear; it’s like holding a newborn baby or watching your grandkids play; it’s like standing on a dune overlooking Lake Michigan on one side and seeing a sea of green treetops on the other; it’s like the peaceful majesty of corn blowing in the breeze in July, or watching an afternoon storm roll over the front range; it’s like being awed by a visit to the Great Wall of China or the skyline in New York City or the York Minster Cathedral in northern England. And it’s like that rare moment when you know in your bones that God is with you and you know you really love Him and you want to sing and shout and tell everyone how you feel. It’s like all these moments--except the moments never stop and never wane.” (pp. 112-113)

Just This

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 07:34:11 -0400

I’m reading The Good News We Almost Forgot by Kevin DeYoung, a guide through the 16th-century Heidelberg Catechism. The answer to question 52 goes like this:

“In all my distress and persecution I turn my eyes to the heavens and confidently await as judge the very One who has already stood trial in my place before God and so has removed the whole curse from me. All His enemies and mine He will condemn to everlasting punishment; but me and all His chosen ones He will take along with Him into the joy and the glory of heaven.”

I just love how it puts this. My judge has already stood trial in my place: my future is secure.

So Much Gospel

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 07:02:20 -0400

I read Isaiah chapter 55 last night and the commentary section on it (Isaiah by J. Alec Motyer from the Tyndale OT Commenataries) this morning. This may be my very favorite chapter of the Bible; it is just so full of amazingly good news for sinners like me.

What to say about it? Go read it; drink in its promises and answer its call. Through the prophet the Lord issues an open invitation to wicked people (v. 7) and promises overabundant supply for their every need at no cost to themselves (because God’s servant has paid the price, Isa. 53:4-6). All that is required of us is that we “Come ... Listen ... Come to me ... Seek ... call ... forsake ... turn.” How can that be? As Motyer points out, it is not that our repentance is effective in any way but that God’s Word is effective in every way (v. 10).

So much good news, so much gospel, all undeserved and freely given. Today, if I could have no other book of the Bible for the rest of my life, I would choose Isaiah, and if no other chapter, Isaiah 55.

Who Weeps...

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:22:03 -0400

reading commentaries on Old Testament prophets? Me, apparently. I’ve been reading Isaiah, one chapter a day, for, I guess, 53 days, since I’m on chapter 53. A few days ago I read chapter 51 and also started reading the commentary on Isaiah by J. Alec Motyer from the Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries series. Isaiah 51:9 struck me, and I adopted it as a prayer for my own church and town and state:

“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?”

Rahab represents Egypt, and throughout these chapters Isaiah is hearkening back to the Exodus. The people here, reflecting on Babylonian captivity now, are like, Hey, God, you rescued us pretty dramatically back then; how about doing it again? And as I reflect on great revivals of the past, I’m doing the same thing: Again, again, please, Lord!

Today in Isaiah 53 I read the familiar verse “He was pierced for our transgressions...” and the commentator points out that pierced is the same word as in Isaiah 51:9. Motyer writes, “When they called on the Arm of the Lord who dealt the monster Rahab a death blow, they did not know they were calling the Arm to his own death” (p. 335).

I am pretty sure I cannot express how this affected me this morning, but I wept at the cost our Savior paid for our redemption. We look at the Exodus and see a big, powerful God easily vanquishing this human power of Egypt--well, of course God won that battle! He’s God! But in the cross is displayed the unbelievable, unfathomable cost involved in rescuing sinful people from the just wrath of a holy God--God paid the price, the same God who must execute that justice on sinners who deserve nothing but wrath and judgment. God paid the price by becoming man and dying. I know it’s all been said before; churched folk have heard it a thousand times. But, wow: calling the Arm of the Lord to his death. Wow.

That’s all. Inexpressible, really. The Gospel so easily becomes just an old, old story that means very little, and I’m so grateful for the Spirit of God opening my eyes now and then to the wonder of it. So I weep.

Retooling

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:39:40 -0400

I’m doing a little housekeeping here and trying some new approaches to my online publishing, as you might guess from the new look here. I’ve added the feed from my brand-new Tumblr blog to the sidebar; I’m thinking that with Tumblr’s ease of posting I’ll be better at posting new content more frequently. Time will tell. I do expect to keep posting longer posts here, but it’s all a work or works in progress and I retain the right to do whatever I want here and there and everywhere online.

The photo above is from our recent visit to Cape Cod. We’ve visited the Cape almost annually for a bunch of years, since Ben was a year old (he is now 17), so our visits are steeped in memories and traditions. We had a good time--enjoyed time with family, a new-to-us ice cream place, Nauset Beach on the ocean side and Skaket Beach on the bay side (yay for a Cape Cod bay beach at low tide!), and a Box Lunch picnic. The kids and I also visted the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory and Colorful Creations, a Hyannis scrapbooking store.

Seriously, what’s not to love about scenes like this: