For God So Loved the World!

Merry Christmas from the Kirkland family!  

It's Christmas eve, December 24th, 2013.  Our family has just settled down for a Christmas eve movie marathon starting with "The Polar Express."  As you can see by the picture, we've exchanged our family Christmas gifts and have all done pretty well.  I received a chocolate diamond necklace--this girl loves diamonds so it will get put to good use! 

Watching "The Polar Express," a movie solely based upon the premise of believing in something we can't see (Santa Claus, of course) makes me think about the True Meaning of Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ.  By Faith, God asks of us to believe in Him while we can't always see Him moving in our lives.  He asks us to believe in His plan for our lives when it seems He has gone silent and asks that we believe in His timing when we can't begin to understand it.  

But, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life." John 3:16

What?

God loves you, and He loves me and He knew we needed a Savior.  That Savior is Christ the Lord, The King of kings and Lord of lords. ---And He did it in His way and in His timing although from our human perspective, the whole scenario seems crazy at best.  

This afternoon at Christmas Eve service, the minister's message was on God's timing.  

God had been silent to the world for 400 years, His people waiting for The Messiah that had been promised.  They were sure that The Messiah would come in as King in power and glory and save them from the oppression of this evil world.  And so they waited...

"But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law." Galatians 4:4

What?

A baby?  Born in a manger?  Now? Are you kidding?!

But God wasn't kidding....and He knew exactly what He was doing, why, how and when He was doing it.  

Isn't it like that in our own lives today?  Isn't it sometimes difficult to understand when God is silent?  Then when we get our breakthrough, how many times is it not at all how we thought it would go or how we had planned it?  

But the reality is, He never leaves us and while we may not understand the method, He sees the big picture.

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55: 8-9)

Tonight, as I listened to the message at church, I could completely relate to this.  There have been painful life experiences that I couldn't understand the why or the when and I wondered if God was truly faithful like He says He is and questioned His love for me.  But after the silence, He would break through my darkness  and show me the ways He had been preparing both me and my situation, in His way and in His timing.  I just had to trust His truth and believe.  

Just as Mary and Joseph made their emotional journey through their circumstances, and then their physical journey to Bethlehem, so we are on a journey.  They looked to the One who guided them through the circumstances that He brought them to, and if we fix our eyes on Him and hold tight to the faith that His love is too strong to leave us on our own--- He will do the same for you and me.  

If you have been following this "Quilter's Journey" blog for nearly a year now, you have watched what began as a hobby to pass down to my daughter become something beyond what I could have hoped for.  As I reflected today, I took a look back and have seen the myriad ways that God was preparing me for this and continues to prepare my situation to pursue fulfilling this purpose that I feel that He has given me. I've even had small opportunities to see how He has used me to inspire others.  I am so humbled that these insignificant things I make and sell have found significance.  None of this has been accomplished by my own works--believe me when I say that December 24th, 2012,  I had no clue what would transpire over the next twelve months.  

....And I have no idea what happens over the next twelve months.  

I have the plans that I feel God is leading me to, but if His plans are different than mine,  I trust that wherever the journey takes me, I can believe in His plans and His timing and that's all I need to know.  

As "The Polar Express " is concluding, I leave you with a final thought from one of the great theologians of our time--the conductor on the Polar Express--

" Sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see."  

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.  God loves you, my dear friend.

See you in 2014!

Winter Wonderland

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Good evening. It's a snow-covered Saturday night with freezing rain in tomorrow's forecast. If you're not familiar with the weather in Ohio, consider yourself blessed. I finally managed to get my catalog together after about five months of having it in the works.  The picture above made it to the front cover of the Winter '13/'14 Catalogue. It's definitely a low-budget catalog, but at least most of my products are in there and it gives me something to put in front of people.  I took the new catalogue with me today when I hosted a booth at the Asbury UMC Winter craft bazaar.  Sold a few items and did lots of networking, so just hoping to convert these leads into regular customers. 

The shop is all decorated for Christmas in preparation for the "Grand Opening" next week. 

Of course, I've been furiously preparing for the craft bazaar and grand opening as well as completing Christmas orders.  All in all, things have been going well--I'm just pretty tired. 

The class schedule is planned for January thru March and the Block of the Month project has been chosen. I'm feeling pretty accomplished at this time, not to mention my daughter and I have two batches of Christmas cookies made.  It can't get any better.  Well, the Elf on the Shelf could send out my Christmas cards.  I guess I'd have to buy them first! 

I hope this post finds you and your family healthy and happy this Christmas season.  This will probably be my last opportunity to post until after Christmas, so it is my sincerest hope that you enjoy a Merry Christmas.  The craziness of the season is part of what makes it all fun, but remember the Baby we celebrate who became the Savior of the world.  The Savior of you and me.  That's the true magic of the season. Good Night.