God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen.
1 Peter 4:10-11 NLT
It is the very beginning of spring here in Pennsylvania which means it could snow for another month, or it could be 80 degrees next week—we never know! Generally, when it gets to March-April we know it is safe to start expecting a few nice days here and there. We had one such day the other week. The sun came out and the last pockets of snow that had been lurking in the shadows melted away. There was that fresh, rich smell of damp earth. I don’t know why the earth (dirt) smells so good at the very beginning of spring but it does! It’s one of those little things in life that makes me so thankful to live in a place where we have four distinct seasons—surely the damp earth only smells this good after a long winter—at least that’s what I tell myself!
For me, each season we experience outside brings with it a change within me as well. I look outside in the spring and I see the new bursting through the old. The daffodils poke their heads through a covering of brown leaves; new buds push through the old branch ends creating and adding new growth to the trees. How freeing it must feel to those new little buds to push through old limits and be set free to grow in the sunlight of spring! Is there something we should be pushing ourselves to get through this season so we can grow?
God has created each of us to do and love something specific. Have you ever noticed that when we are doing “the thing” we are made for, that we come away feeling refreshed and even more energized than when we started? Have you experienced that? Do you know what “your thing” is? I assure you, even if you don’t feel like you have any particular talents, there is something. There is something that when you do it, time ceases to exist for you. It may not be anything fancy. For me, when I am engaged in a creative endeavor, I “lose track of time” and become totally absorbed in whatever I am working on (a hard thing for a tightly wound, Type A kind of person to do).
If you are feeling run down and worn out, it doesn’t matter how much you pare down and strip from your schedule, you will not feel refreshed until you spend time doing the thing you were made to do. You may have to scale back on other things so you have time do what you love, but adding the thing that you love is life-giving. It is rejuvenating. Don’t be afraid to try something new—stretch yourself—you may be surprised!
This spring I encourage you to pause, breathe in the fresh, damp smell of new life emerging and think about what God has created you to love and do that. Do it whole-heartedly and unto the Lord! Feel new life being breathed into you this spring.
P.S.
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See the sermon from our pastor that I mentioned here: Life or Death
You all know I love historical fiction, and my favorite is usually American Historical Fiction, meaning of course, that it is set in America. However, I have read several World War 2 historical fiction books lately that I really enjoyed and they all happened to be set in England. If you are looking for some World War 2 historical fiction check out some of these titles!
The Last Night in London
This book opens in 2019 as journalist Maddie Warner travels to England to work on an article in which she gets to interview the famous model Precious Dubose about the fashions and times of World War II and the impact the war made on fashion. The elderly Precious is known to not like to open up to people but she sees something worth opening to in young Maddie. Perhaps this is because Precious, like Maddie, has secrets that run deep buried in her past.
The contrasting storyline takes us back to right before the war in 1939 when Precious Dubose is a young model who recently arrived in England, sharing a flat with her fellow model and friend, Eva Harlow. Eva is desperately trying to better her station in life which means leaving her past as far behind her as she can. This becomes imperative for Eva to do as she starts to develop a relationship with the handsome and socially elite, Graham St. John. However, Eva’s secrets aren’t as well hidden as she would like and before she knows it Eva is blackmailed into being an informant lest her secrets, as well as the very lives of those she hold dear, become threatened.
Secrets of a Charmed Life
Emily has dreams of becoming a wedding dress designer. She is actively pursuing these dreams at the age of 15 when she lands a job in a local wedding dress shop. However, such dreams may have to wait as World War II is underway and Britain has come under attack with threats of bombing from Germany. Still being underage, Emmy and her seven-year-old little sister, Julia, are sent to live in the country. This means Emmy has to leave her job at the wedding dress makers which she is loath to do.
Then one day Emmy receives a letter from her old boss inviting her to come to London and meet her boss’s brother—a well-known costume designer who may be willing to tutor Emmy and enormously enhance her career opportunities. Emmy determines to sneak away from this house in the country in the middle of the night to make this meeting—but problems arise for Emmy when Julia discovers her plans and threatens to give Emmy away, unless Emmy takes Julia with her.
Having made their way back to England, Emmy leaves Julia in their mother’s flat while she goes to her meeting. Partway through her meeting, the blitz starts. Emmy is frantic to get back to Julia but it is not easy to make one’s way through a city being riddled with bombs. When Emmy at last gets back to their flat—Julia is gone. Will they both make it through the blitz and be reunited again?
In America we remember the shortages, rationing, and those on the home front were forced to practice but the Brits had it far worse. Imagine sending away your child for their safely in a time of war, not knowing if you would ever see them again, not knowing who you would lose in the nightly bombings. This novel brought to my attention more of the destruction of Britain than I ever gave thought to before now.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
Beth had one of the best minds in the country so why is she in an insane asylum now? She remembers the events leading up to her being taken, kicking and screaming, to the asylum but something still isn’t making sense—there is a missing piece of the puzzle. Will her two once-closest friends come to her rescue?
Osla, Mab, and Beth are friends working together at Bletchley Park, a British intelligence building, where they all work on secret undercover operations to break the German enigma. What happens to split them apart?
The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff
I listened to this as an audiobook and I couldn’t stop! Told from the rotating perspective of three women, the author, Pam Jenoff, does a great job of keeping you enthralled through the entire tale. This is a story about the women spies, stationed in France, who worked for the British intelligence during World War II. One wrong move could mean death, not just for one of the spies, but for all in their network. The women are working diligently and making progress when a few odd things start to occur—it seems there may be a spy among them….
A decade later, young Grace Heasley discovers an unattended valise tucked under a bench at Grand Central Station. Opening it she finds 12 photographs of young women, around her own age. Grace impulsively tucks the photos into her purse and leaves. Overcome with guilt for stealing the photos, Grace returns later that day hoping to replace the photos, but the valise is gone!
Grace now begins to feel a responsibility to the girls in the photos and pressure to seek out the owner of the valise, a task that proves near impossible. Why were their pictures being carried about in a suitcase? Grace can’t stop her inquisitive nature and so begins her journey to get to the bottom of this mystery, a journey that ends up being much more than Grace bargained for.
The Lord says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name.”
Isaiah 65:1 NLT
There’s that old joke about the elderly woman who is in the hospital with very poor health. It seems it may be her time to go, so her pastor stops by to visit with her, possibly for the last time. Upon arriving the pastor says, “Mrs. Jones, I’d really like to talk to you about the hereafter.”
Mrs. Jones replies, “Oh good, I’ve been wanting to talk to someone about that!”
“You have?”, the Pastor asks.
“Oh yes. I keep walking into rooms and thinking, `Now what was I here after?’”
I can certainly relate with Mrs. Jones, even at my relatively young age! In fact, just today I went downstairs to the basement to grab something that should have been on my desk in a white plastic bag. I didn’t see it right off, but I saw a few other things that I had been meaning to bring upstairs so I took them upstairs instead. Upon returning upstairs, I looked around for the white plastic bag but I still couldn’t find it, so I went back downstairs. When I went back downstairs I looked again, I didn’t see it, looked a few other places and still couldn’t find it. Finally turned around to give the first area where I expected it to be a good hard look and then I saw it! It had been placed about a foot away from where I thought it was and that is why I it hadn’t seen it! I should also mention that I did briefly look for this plastic bag the day before too, albeit half-heartedly, but hadn’t seen it that time either.
All this to say, if it is this easy for us to miss things we know are in plain sight, how easy is it for us to overlook God when we are not actively trying to seek Him? In Isaiah 65:1 the Lord says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ To a nation that did not call on my name.” (Isaiah 65:1 NLT) Ouch! Have we done that too? Or should I say, how many times have we done that ?
So many times we are trying to make a hard decision, seeking guidance in a tough situation and what do we do? We open our Bibles randomly hoping to find a magic verse before muttering a quick prayer. And then we wait—for five whole minutes—and then we jump up to go talk to our spouse, friend, or other family member to ask what they think God’s will is.
But God isn’t Santa waiting for our requests. And He isn’t a gumball machine waiting to spit out the exact thing we want as soon as we ask. Sometimes He gives us what we ask for just after we ask; other times He allows us to wait. And there are those times He does not give us what we want. Knowing God and His will is a relationship we have to invest in. Now granted, there are times when He will answer our prayers quickly, and there are times when He may seem to not much care about our requests because his silence can seem so definite. But what He wants the most is for us to invest in a relationship with Him; that we seek Him—so when we need Him, we will know that He has been with us the whole time.
A vignette is just a grouping or gathering of items, arranged together in a manner that is pleasing to the eye.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating a vignette:
· Add an odd number of items to your vignette
· Use objects of varying heights
· Use objects of varying texture
· Try using something quirky or unexpected in your vignette
· Add a natural element when possible
A Few Ingredients
Here are a few items (I think of them as the key ingredients) that I like to keep on hand for spring. Just as flour, sugar, and baking soda make a good base for some baked goods, so too these items will help you to pull together a vignette.
In a vignette, you want to have a few items that you are showcasing. What really upgrades your vignette are the little connecting pieces that don’t steal the show but support the showcase pieces. For a spring vignette, I like to include:
· Green moss balls
· Faux moss
· Twine balls
· Pinecones
· Faux eggs
· Something seasonal like dried flowers, bird or bunny figurines
Things to Keep in Mind
· Remember you want to keep an odd number of items in your vignette but some items, grouped together, will read as one item. Say for instance that you have two faux eggs with a pinecone grouped together—that will read as one item not 3.
· Don’t overcrowd your vignette. If you are putting items together and feel like there is a lot going on—there just might be! Try taking a few items away and see what you think.
· Set it and then walk away. It is easy to start over-analyzing everything you are doing so try setting the vignette and then walking away for a bit before coming back. If you do this, you will most likely easily see what needs to be changed—or you may decide that it is perfect the way it is!
Especially for Spring
I love adding faux moss and moss balls, Easter eggs and twine balls to my vignette but what about the bigger pieces? For spring, I love adding bird figurines, little bunny figurines, a plant, and possibly even an Easter sign or vintage floral postcard.
Easter Vignette Ideas
Here are a few things I have added to my vignettes this spring.
This vignette was done in a dough bowl and I added:
· Moss balls
· Faux Easter eggs
· Pinecones
· A twine ball
Birdcage Vignette:
· A wooden bird figurine perched on a candlestick
· Two antique bobbins
· A round little vase for some dried flowers
· A Faux Egg
· Moss in the bottom
Vignette in a box:
· Moss
· Two bird figurines
· Vintage bottle vase
· A sprig of dried flowers
I hope these ideas help to inspire you to have fun and get creative with your decor this spring/Easter season. As always—happy decorating!
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“What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’”
Isaiah 45:9
I have mentioned before that one of my hobbies is making glass beads. (See the post, The Refining Fire.) I have made more than my fair share of beads that have not turned out the way I wanted them to—at all! And, while I have had many moments where I shook my head at the outcome of my efforts, I have never had a bead tell me that it did not like the way I made it! But that is what we do with God, isn’t it?
There are many things in this life that I wish I could do better. There are many things I wish I could do even a little bit! I wish I had some musical ability; I wish I was quicker at math; I wish I liked technology and was better with it than I am. Alas, no one asked for my opinion when I was being created in my mother’s womb. I have a whole list of things I would have swapped out and added if it had been left up to me. But it wasn’t.
This verse also makes me think about when people ask why a good God would let such terrible things happen in this world. That’s not really how He made things at the beginning. The terrible things were our fault—not His. Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden enjoying a blissful life unlike anything we’ve ever seen. They were in harmony with nature, with each other, and with God. Then, they went and ruined everything. The Serpent was in the Garden and he questioned Eve, tempted her, and got her to doubt God for just long enough for her to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. Adam was there, but apparently he did nothing to stop her. All at once, evil was introduced into the world. And the Garden was no longer a place of bliss.
We do not know how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before this happened. Presumably it was a while, but not so very long. Do any of us think we possess any more will power than Adam and Eve? We have the benefit of hindsight, similar to telling the character not to open the door that we know the villain is lurking behind. We know what they were introducing to the world by their initial sin. However, Adam and Eve did not and could not, fully grasp what their sin would do not just to them but to all of humanity. Conversely, we cannot imagine the communion they had with God prior to the fall.
Yet we think we know better. We think that a good God should not allow things like this to happen. But why do we think we could design a better world when we were the ones who messed it up the first time? Who are we to tell the creator that we don’t like the way He created us? Who are we to question and complain about the abilities we wish we had? Who are we to say the He designed the world, His creation, all wrong?
Perhaps we spend too much time asking why we were made in such a way rather than seeking how we can use the way we were made to serve Him. Perhaps we should ask Him how he wants us to use our specific talents and abilities to convey his love; how He wants us to respond to all the hurting souls in the world, and how we should demonstrate our faith and trust in Him. How can we show Him that we believe He knows what He is doing and that He has everything under control? Most importantly we need to seek how can we be more like Him.
