Mullings...

When is a baby not a baby? No, this isn't a joke with a snappy, one-line answer. It's a real question that's being debated in our world today. With Christmas just a day or two away, I've been thinking on the answer to this question in relation to the celebration of Jesus' birth.

It recently struck me that we tend to focus all on His birth. And while that's an amazing, incomprehensibly wonderful thing, I wonder that we forget where it all started. You see, Jesus didn't leave His throne in Heaven the night He was born. Now before you say 'But...', let me finish. :-) He didn't come to earth the night He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger, He came when He was conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit.

He didn't just suddenly become a human being when He left the safety of His mother's womb, He was a human baby nine months before that wasn't He? Or wait, was He just a blob of tissue?

"You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb.....My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them."

Psalm 139: 13,15-16

So when is a baby not a baby?

At week #1?

Or week 3 perhaps?

How about week 5?

Or week 7?

Week 8?

When exactly does this become a human baby? When does the soul enter the body and make it uniquely human?

On day 22, the heart begins to beat, pumping it's own blood, often a different type from the mother's.

By the end of week 3, the spinal column and nervous system are forming, as are the liver, kidneys and intestines.

By week 5, the eyes, hands, and legs are forming.

By week 8, all the organs are in place, bones begin to replace cartilage, fingerprints begin to form, and the baby can hear...

Week 12, the vocal cords are complete, as are the nerves and spinal cord.

Week 15, adult taste buds are in place.

Week 17, the baby begins to dream...

At week 20, the baby recognizes his mother's voice. Week 20 is also the earliest stage at which partial birth abortions are performed.

Month 5 and 6, the baby practices breathing. Oil and sweat glands are now fully functional.

Month 7 through 9, the baby's eyeteeth are now present, he can open and close his eyes, can use four of the five senses (hearing, taste, touch & vision), knows the difference between waking and sleeping, can relate to the moods of his mother, and his heart begins pumping 300 gallons of blood per day.

This is incredible to me!

And Jesus went through each of these stages of growth, just like each of us did. He left ultimate power and authority for ultimate vulnerability and helplessness. For us.

So at what age does a person not deserve a chance to live? Which of these little ones is it okay to 'dispose of'?

This one?

This one?

Maybe this one?

What about this one?

Let me leave you with this verse.

"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."

Matthew 1:20-21

Any sins and all sins will be forgiven if we only ask Him, ask the One who came to earth as an embryo and grew into a man in order to extend grace and mercy to us.

May you know His unbounded love for you this Christmas and every day for the rest of your life.

Project Completed!

So, do you remember this sweater from my earlier post ('Coming Soon')?

Well, here is what happened to it! :-)

Mitts! :-D

Just a couple of simple seams and this is what you get!


I'm really happy with how they turned out!


I love, love, love the flowers!

And while these pictures were being taken, this is what Prairie was doing. :-)

You can find my Etsy listing for these mitts here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/89148966/misty-roses-hand-mitts.

Jonathan Update

Here's another update on Jonathan. God is working! Hallelujah!
http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2011/12/mighty-to-save.html

Happy Sense of Accomplishment

I'm feeling good! I have three finished pieces up in my shop, another finished piece just waiting to be photographed, and I began construction on a new design today! :-) I know it doesn't seem like much compared to all the shops out there with dozens of products to sell, but it's a lot to me and I'm feeling satisfied.
Taking it one step at a time, and enjoying the process...

And this picture makes me happy!


As does this one... :-)

Have a wonderful night and a restful Sunday, blog world.

Update on Jonathan

So a family has stepped forward to adopt Jonathan! :-D Hallelujah! But that is only the first step. So much needs to happen in a very short time in a very slow system...but God can do it! Please don't cease praying.

You can find a more detailed update here: http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2011/12/update-on-jonathan.html Please take the time to read the specific prayer requests!

Please Pray!!!

Please, please take the time to pray for this young man! He's fifteen-years-old, lives in a Ukrainian orphanage, and desperately wants a family of his own! The problem is that on December 31st, he will turn sixteen. Normally, that would be an exciting birthday, but for him, this marks the day he will be turned out on his own with no chance of being adopted. It's the day he 'ages out' of the orphanage.

Please pray that God would move mountains to bring this boy into a loving home before it's too late! I have every confidence that God can do this, and what would show His power and might more than to rescue this one He loves so much, snatching him from a life of hardship and loneliness at the last second!

What I love is that this young man's name is....Jonathan! The name Jonathan means Yahweh has given, or gift of God. The Lord has brought Jonathan into this world for a purpose, he's a gift. I pray for a family both to give him the love and care he needs, and also benefit from this gift of God.

You can find out more about Jonathan here: http://www.nogreaterjoymom.com/2011/12/urgenturgenturgent.html.

Please pass on Jonathan's story! If you or anyone you know are interested in adopting him, you can contact Amy at waitingchildren@gmail.com.

Coming Soon!

I found this pretty sweater in a thrift shop this summer.

Look at the lovely detailing!

I have plans for this sweater, so stay tuned to see what becomes of it... :-)

Mmm, good!

You know that feeling you get after a long day's work, when you're tired, but know you've accomplished good things? Yeah... :-) Treat yourself a cup of hot-chocolate (or tea, or your other hot drink of choice), curl up in a cozy corner somewhere and read a good book!

Hmm, maybe I should take my own advice... See you later!

Gone Away Designs on Etsy!!!!

My shop is officially up and running!!!! Yippee!!!! :-D Check it out if you're so inclined: http://www.etsy.com/shop/GoneAwayDesigns.

Whew, it's been a lot harder and taken much longer than I anticipated. And the work has just begun! :-) More items coming soon!

And now, to bed.

Countdown!

It's almost here!!!  I spent the entire afternoon and most of the evening working on setting up my Etsy shop and unless horrible things happen, I'll be listing my first item tomorrow!  :-D  I've been working toward this for so long, it doesn't seem real.  I can't wait to see what the Lord will do with it!

I'll keep you posted!

Sneek Peak!

Here's a little glimpse of one of my latest projects, soon to be listed on Etsy.com! 

And my faithful little distract -...I mean, helper.... :-)

Unanswerable Question?

So I've been studying Leviticus.  For all you thinkers out there who spend time in God's Word, I have a question, something I've been pondering today.  It may not be something very deep, but it's the kind of thing I wonder about as I study.  :-) 
I'm in chapter 16 where it's laying out the law for the Day of Atonement.  There were to be two goats brought forward for the sins of the nation of Israel: one goat to be sacrificed as the atonement, and one to be released into the wilderness as the scapegoat, representing the removal of sin.  Both pictured the atoning sacrifice of Christ and the placing on Him the guilt of all our sin, which He removed by His death and resurrection.

So my question is: why did God choose goats?  Jesus is always referred to as the Lamb, so wouldn't it have made more sense if the atonement had been a lamb?  Obviously, God knew what He was doing, but it just makes me curious.  And of course, this is the kind of thing commentators never address... :-P

Anyway, just something to tickle your curiosity and get those wheels turning a bit!  :-)

I can't wait to ask God these kinds of questions when I get to Heaven!

Update

So, as you can see, I've revamped my blog!  Yay!  I'm hoping to be a little more faithful in updating this in future...  I'm working on some sewing projects and am planning to post pictures soon, so stay tuned!

A Week of Thankfulness

This week saw my big brother's birthday (I won't say how old he is :-), 

my sweet kitten's 1st birthday,

(yes, she really sleeps like this!)

and tonight is opening night of 'To Kill a Mockingbird'!  (No pictures, yet, sorry!)

I'm super excited to see how the Lord will work, and extremely thankful for all He has already done. 

'To Kill a Mockingbird': The Learning Curve

I'm rather ashamed to admit that in the beginning I wasn't overly excited about this show...  I think that stemmed from not really knowing the story.  I mean, I knew what it was about, I'd seen the movie years ago (and I'm afraid I thought it rather boring at the time...), but there's a difference between knowing something in your head and knowing it in your heart.

When I was cast, I hoped that it would be a good learning experience, that I would be challenged and stretched as an actress, even though I've had this type of role before.  To be honest, originally, I didn't really want this role because on the surface it was so similar to other things I've done before and I much prefer to change things up.  But I chose to leave it in the Lord's hands and decided that if I were cast, I would accept the role, no matter what it was.  And of course, like so many times before, I got the part I would have preferred not to get...and like those previous times, I fell in love with it anyway and realized that it was God's orchestration.  And He knows what He's doing, Hallelujah! 

So as I started to study the script, I began to see that there was a lot more to this role, to this story, than I originally thought...a lot more.  Maybe it's just me, but as a general rule, I tend to shy away from things that everybody raves about, be it a book, a movie, a clothing style, whatever.  I mean, if everybody loves it, it can't be very original for me to love it, too!  (Can you tell I have a slightly independent spirit?)  So those 'popular' kinds things, I usually take with a grain of salt and a lot of skepticism.

And then I read the book.  Oh, boy.  I'm a firm believer in always reading the book in preparation for a literature-based show, but I actually toyed with the idea of keeping the script as my only source-material this time!  That would have been a mistake.  What an amazing piece of literature. 

A lot of people seem to take it merely as a civil-rights piece, focused solely on race.  But if that's where we stop in our assessment of it, we are missing the whole point!  It's not about black and white, it's about people period.  It's about looking past what we see on the outside of a person, not just skin color, but age, personality, social standing, anything that makes another person in any way different from ourselves.  We humans always seem to quickly pick up on the things that make people different, and by nature we tend to treat them as less than ourselves.

The race issue has always been...well, black and white to me.  I mean, isn't it obvious how wrong it is to treat anyone in a certain way based on the color of their skin??  We're all human beings, we all descended from Adam, created by the same Creator who loves us all equally.  So reading a book that was just going to tell me what I knew already wasn't particularly motivating at first, but I soon began to realize how deep it really went and I could see the same lesson being played out at every turn.  And that excited me!

There are a lot books, stories, etc. out there that people rave about as being so meaningful, but when I read them and compare them to Scripture, they just fall apart, devoid of depth.  I mistakenly thought this book might be one of those.  But I was wrong, it's powerful.  So powerful.  The way Atticus determines to treat people is everything Jesus tells us to do, and to 'see' it played out in true-to-life, semi-modern scenarios helps to make those Biblical lessons so clear and so simple.  It sheds new light on what we already know.

And so, by the end of the book, I finally knew the story, and I finally knew how really worthwhile this show is.  The last few rehearsals, it's really started coming from the gut for me, and I'm eagerly looking forward to presenting this amazing story to audiences for the next month.  I pray God will move in the hearts of all those who come to see the show, and that He'll continue to work in the hearts of our cast and crew.

Every person, I mean every single person, has value before God.  Every single person has a story, a reason for being the way they are, be it good or bad.  Our job is to treat each other with respect, with love, with understanding, with patience.  To look at things from their point of view.  Each person, no matter how unattractive in looks or attitude, is still created in the image of God and because of that, if for no other reason, we must 'crawl inside their skin and walk around in it'.

And maybe, just maybe, someone else will do that for us, too.

Hello, Blog World!

Well, here I am.  Never really thought I'd be doing this, but I decided to give it a try!  My life has taken a sudden turn in a direction that I didn't see coming, and this feels like a good time to begin something new, to turn the next page and begin reading a new chapter. 

The Lord has a way of surprising us in life that always thrills me!  One day, you're walking along, minding your own business then WHAM!  When you least expect it, He whips you around a blind curve and suddenly, as you round the corner, a breathtaking vista overloads your senses and all you can do is stop and stare, amazed that He chose you to look out on this beautiful landscape, amazed at the way He has blessed you.

God is so good.  No matter how long, how difficult, how bewildering the journey, He is always walking with us, and the destination is incredible!