Making Old Things New

I have spent a lovely afternoon making all things crafty. 

 

I love taking old things and giving them a new lease of life.  I love finding new things to do with them: painting them, decorating them, embellishing them, unpicking them, restitching them, reshaping them.  The list goes on.

 

There has been a trend in recent years for 'upcycling' (improving and 'prettifying' old things), and creating gifts and crafts from old materials.  And many gift shops and websites have sprung up which celebrate this process.

 

I love creating something, but I especially love it when I am taking something old and am giving it a new lease of life.  There is something really satisfying in giving new life to something which appears 'past it', or which appears to have no real use.

 

I love making things new.

 

I think that God understands this and feels the same.  He is Creator God, but He is also Recreator God.  In Revelation he says,

 

“I am making everything new!” 

[Revelation 21:5 NIV]

 

No matter how 'past it' we may feel, no matter what we have lost along the way, no matter what state we are in, He can make us new.  He unpicks us and restitches us, He cleans us up and gives us a fresh coat of paint.  He gives us a new lease of life.

 

He makes us new.

 

 

 

Handmade Tales

More sewing tales today.

I have put the cushion cover on hold until I have figured quite what I am doing with it, but I have spent the evening instead making a beautiful roll-up craft case for knitting needles, pens/pencils, sewing equipment etc.

Again, I wasn't following a pattern, so I just sort of made it up as I went along.

However, I am so proud of the finished product and so pleased.  It looks really good, as if I have bought it, rather than sewing it myself.
 

There are wonky stitches and a few bits which frayed and so I had to sew over them a few times.  There are a few bits where I could perhaps have used a different colour thread so the stitching isn’t so obvious.  But in the main, I am really proud of my creation.

 

It is not perfect, but I made it and I’m delighted with it.

 

I have been reflecting on the delight (and, if I’m honest, amazement as I never really believed I could learn to use a sewing machine and actually make things halfway decent), that I feel and thinking about it illustrates God’s delight in us – His creations.

 

We are not perfect in and of ourselves – we are ‘frayed round the edges’ – but in His sight and through His purifying love, we become perfect.

 

I love that no one else has sewn what I’ve made either: it is completely unique.  One of a kind.

 

I love this verse in Ephesians,

 

“For we are God’s masterpiece.”

 

[Ephesians 2:10 NLT]

 

Not, we are God’s first draft, or God’s quick sketch, or God’s doodle.   We are His carefully constructed, well-thought-out, planned, perfected, delightful hand-made masterpieces.

 

I am so proud of my sewing, I can’t stop looking at it and marvelling and smiling and feeling so proud that I made it.

And that’s just how God feels every time He looks at us.