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.

 

DIY

I have done something to my shoulders.  I'm not quite sure what, but I can't turn my head too far to the right and it hurts to lift my left arm too high.  I think I've trapped a nerve, but I have no idea how.

 

It feels as though there's a very heavy weight on my shoulders - an oversized bag, or even a Jack-and-Jill style plank, supporting pails of water.

 

I have taken a medley of painkillers.  I have had a hot bath.  I have used a deep heat muscle rub and an ice-pack.  I have tried to massage it and have tried to persuade others to massage it.  I have wedged a hot-water bottle between myself and the chair, which I am precariously managing to keep in place.

 

All of these things have helped a little bit, but it is still very sore and very stiff.

 

All of this has made me think of the passage in the Bible where God talks to Jerusalem and tells them to get ready to leave their place of captivity. 

 

       "Awake, awake, O Zion,
       clothe yourself with strength.
       Put on your garments of splendor,
       O Jerusalem, the holy city.

       [...] Shake off your dust;
       rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem.
       Free yourself from the chains on your neck,
       O captive Daughter of Zion."

 

       [Isaiah 52:1-2 NIV, emphasis mine]

 

I've always found the wording of this passage interesting: free yourself from the chains on your neck.

 

Free yourself from the chains on your neck.

 

Yesterday I wrote about sometimes needing the help of other people to come alongside us to help us to uproot things in our lives.  But sometimes there are things in our lives which only we can sort out. 

 

Sometimes we can wait for other people to help us and to pull us out of our difficult situations and put us on our feet.  But sometimes we are the only ones who can do it.  Sometimes we need to be active and proactive, instead of waiting passively for someone else to sort us out.

 

Sometimes we need to do it ourselves.

 

And as we step out and start sorting things in our hearts and in our lives, other people will come alongside us and help us.  They will encourage and support and motivate us.  And God will too.  But sometimes we need to be the ones who make that decision and step out.

 

We need to remove the chains from our own necks.  The chains of oppression and inferiority and guilt.  The chains of resentment and regret and disappointment.

 

There are some things that only we can do.

 

So whilst I can't seem to remove the physical feeling of 'chains' on my neck, I can choose to remove the emotional and spiritual chains.