A true labour of love

Recently, a big box arrived in the mail from my cousin. As I opened it, I noted the careful way it had been packed – plastic air ‘pillows’, then bubble wrap, then another thicker wrap, then tissue paper, then a piece of polystyrene. Nothing left to chance, for sure. Finally, out my gift came – a beautiful piece of stitching work, mounted in a sturdy, brown frame.

Yet this was not your normal piece of stitching work, I soon discovered. My cousin had included a note with it from which I learned it is called ‘blackwork’, even though several colours were used to create this particular piece of embroidery. Apparently, way back in fifteenth century England and possibly even earlier, blackwork was indeed largely black and was used mostly to make the collars and cuffs of men’s shirts stronger and more decorative. Some say it came to England from Spain via one of Henry VIII’s wives, Catherine of Aragon – and thus it is sometimes called Spanish work. But my amazing gift actually contains various traditional Celtic designs, each pattern created by using simple, ordinary, single stitches.

What a labour of love it was for my cousin, no doubt taking many, many hours of painstaking work. along with incredible attention to detail. Some of the shapes it contains look like little trees, others like leaves and still others like stars. Then there are also intricate diamond and square shapes, all linked together to form a dainty, colourful grid, while the traditional black has been used throughout for borders and for the rectangular design at each end of the pattern. Yet, when I emailed to express my thanks for such a special gift, my cousin responded with touching simplicity: I love doing this work and I really love giving it to others who value and appreciate it.

I felt even more humbled when I read these words, but they also set me thinking. Perhaps my cousin had given their work to someone in the past, imagining they would truly love it, only to discover this was not the case? Perhaps the recipient tucked it away in a drawer, never to see the light of day? At that point, I felt so sorry for my cousin, even though the whole creative process had obviously brought much joy and satisfaction in itself.

My cousin’s words stayed with me for some time afterwards as I reflected on how affirming it is when others appreciate something we have taken time and effort to create. Yet sometimes that does not happen, does it? Sometimes, we simply need to put our work out there, offering it in love while knowing it may not always be fully valued or even accepted. After all, this is what Jesus Christ himself did for us with his very life.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. John 1:10–12

What an extreme labour of love Jesus offered up for us! May we always treasure such a priceless gift and praise and honour the Giver each day.

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Those many other things

I wonder how often you find yourself wishing you knew more about something. Perhaps it is some skill you wish you had acquired earlier in life and would like to pursue even now. Or perhaps it is an area of expertise where you wish you did not need to rely on others’ knowledge but were able to handle everything yourself. This applies to me in the general area of IT. I am not interested in it at all, although I use my laptop all the time as a writer. Instead, I rely heavily on my husband’s knowledge whenever I experience some computer glitch or problem with the internet. But what will happen when he perhaps cannot help me? Then I may well wish I had listened to him much more carefully.

Each day, we are surrounded by so much information, some of which we may wish we had and some we are happy to ignore. But recently, I came to some verses towards the end of John’s gospel I could not remember noticing before that definitely made me long to know more. After describing how the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples, including Thomas who had not initially believed, John continues:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:30–31

Then, in the final verse of this gospel, we find the following:

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. John 21:25

At that point, I felt a little ripped off. What other signs that Jesus performed do we know nothing about because they are not in John’s gospel – or anywhere else? And what about those many other things Jesus did as well that would fill whole volumes, according to John? I wanted to know all about them and perhaps get an even clearer picture of Jesus and his ministry as a result. In choosing what to include, it seems John did not overlook any signs Jesus performed or anything else he did. He simply decided – no doubt as God led him – that he had written enough to enable us to believe in Jesus, without including anything more.

As I thought more about this whole matter, I realised two things. First, we do indeed know enough of the wonderful things Jesus said and did, as John maintains, to believe Jesus is the Son of God. Second, Jesus is even more powerful and amazing than I have already concluded! According to John, we have glimpsed only a percentage of all Jesus said and did – and I for one cannot wait to discover what we have missed out on.

For now, however, we have been shown and told enough. One day, we will find out the rest but, until then, may we all keep on believing in our wonderful Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. May we continue to declare, along with the centurion who saw Jesus crucified for us:

Surely this man was the Son of God!” Mark 15:39b

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Useless?

As I stared at the computer screen in my study, suddenly it came to life and I could see my interviewer in his studio at Trans World Radio somewhere in the Manchester area in the UK. He introduced himself and we chatted for a while. Then he outlined what we would cover in the interview we were about to record. [To watch this interview, please click here.]

‘First, I’ll ask you where you live and where you might take me if I were to visit you in Sydney,’ he explained. ‘Next, we’ll talk about your new book Swansong – why you wrote it, the importance of speaking life-giving words to others and so on – and then I’d like to ask you about your fiction books too. Is that okay?’

I warmed to him immediately. With my other recent radio interviews, I had had no real idea what question would come next. In the end, they were fine, but knowing what lay ahead was definitely reassuring.

In the end, this interview lasted for twenty minutes, with one question flowing easily onto another. But the most important question, I sensed, was one my lovely interviewer asked around half way through.

‘When I was a child, if I made a mistake, a close family member would say to me, “Oh … you’re useless!” I don’t think they meant any harm by that – it was just a throwaway line – but for many, many years, those words harmed me. So, what would you say to someone who has experienced something like that? How can we bring forgiveness and restoration into those situations?’

Immediately, my heart went out to him across the miles. I could see by his facial expression how important this question still seemed to be and my mind worked furiously to grasp the right words to say. I began by suggesting that this is the opposite to how God views us. In Genesis 1:27, we read we are all, male and female, created in the image of the God of the universe. Further, we were each created and formed with such intricate care, as King David wrote about:

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:13–14

As well, when God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, Jeremiah was told God knew him even before he was born (Jeremian 1:9a) – and surely this is true for each one of us today too. On top of that, we who believe in Jesus Christ have been given the amazing privilege to be called children of God (John 1:12), something John continues to marvel at in his first letter:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! I John 3:1a

My point in sharing these thoughts with my interviewer was that, given we are God’s beloved children, created in the image of God with such care, how could we ever be useless? I can well understand how we can come to believe such things about ourselves when others say them to us, even once, but surely this is the work of the enemy who always seeks to accuse and deceive?

Useless? I don’t think so – do you?

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Falling from the sky

Recently, I had the most amazing phone conversation with someone I have never met. In fact, this lady began her call by telling me she knew nothing about me until someone gave her one of my business cards and told her she should invite me to speak at her club. As we talked, I remembered how, the previous week after I spoke somewhere else, another lady came up to me, introduced herself and asked if she could take one of my cards for her friend who was always looking for good speakers for her own club. Of course, I was happy for her to do that, but even as we chatted, I wondered if she would indeed remember to pass it on. Sometimes, people make such statements but may not follow through.

This time around, however, my doubts were ill-founded. As the phone conversation continued, my caller explained she had now checked out my website and would be very interested to have me come and speak and to meet me.

‘I find it very hard to get speakers,’ she said. ‘I have a long list of them but none of their topics seemed to jump out at me. Could you perhaps come to our club in May?’

She suggested a certain date which, miraculously, was still free in my diary.

‘That’s so wonderful!’ she blurted out then. ‘I have just come back from a bus trip and, all the way home, I was thinking over and over, “Who can I get to speak?” and praying hard too. Oh – it’s like you’ve fallen from the sky for me!’

I am sure no one else has ever said such a thing to me before. I laughed, but she insisted that was what it felt like to her. ‘You’re definitely an answer to prayer,’ she then added with relief.

We went on to discuss which of my talks I would give on the day, but even at the end of our conversation, she was still marvelling how I had ‘literally’ fallen from the sky for her and how God had provided her with a speaker at just the right moment.

At the time of our phone call, we had visitors in our home, so I then shared this story with them. We discussed the interesting theology behind the idea of someone falling from the sky – but we knew what this lady meant and rejoiced with her at the amazing way God answers our prayers.

Later, her joy over this whole event caused me to think further about answers to prayer I have seen in my own life – and also to wonder how many I may have missed noticing altogether. At times, I suspect I can pray about something but, when the answer comes, I can, to my shame, forget God’s part in it altogether. I may attribute it merely to good management on my part – or perhaps even to chance or coincidence.  As a result, how many wonderful ‘falling from the sky’ moments have I missed? And how thankless I have been towards God too.

I hope I have learnt my lesson. I hope I will rejoice and be thankful much more often in future.

I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. Psalm 9:1

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In safe hands

When you were growing up, did you ever tell others what you thought you might become later in life? Some of us seem to know from early on, don’t we? I suspect my older sister knew soon after starting school herself that she wanted to be a teacher. I still have a memory of being her ‘pretend class’ as I sat obediently on our back steps while she stood in front of me and ‘taught’!

Recently, our ten-year-old granddaughter looked up at me with her big, brown eyes and announced, ‘Nanna, I want to be like you when I get older!’

‘What do you mean?’ I asked her, thinking she might be referring to something I do or say as we spend time together.

‘I’m going to be an author like you,’ she said firmly, ‘because I write really loooooong stories!’’

I swallowed hard, thinking how much more it takes to produce a book than the ability to write long stories, but decided not to discourage her in any way. ‘That’s wonderful!’ I told her.

‘’Yes, I’m going to be an author and an illustrator!’ she added then, obviously very satisfied with her decision.

Who was I to dampen her heart’s desire at that point? I know Maxine has a wonderful imagination and an amazing ability to think up interesting scenarios. And she is definitely a much more talented artist than I will ever be. Maybe she will become a famous author and illustrator – but my heart went out to her as I envisaged the many discouragements she would most likely face along the way in tackling such literary endeavours. So, in that moment, I prayed she would know God’s presence beside her and in her, whatever twists and turns her life journey might take.

None of us knows exactly what lies ahead of us in life, do we? If we did, we might want to skip some of the more difficult parts altogether or at least reach the better parts sooner. I do not remember it but, apparently, I stated in our school magazine in my late teens that I wanted to become a writer. That is indeed what happened – but not until my middle fifties. Instead, I believe God guided me through various other occupations and many wonderful but also challenging experiences in my life that have hopefully served to add much more depth to my writing. But in the process, I also discovered that, however hard things are, God can always be trusted to watch over us and hold us close.

King David certainly went through many extreme ups and downs in his life. In Psalm 31, he does not leave us in any doubt as to how distressed he is at that point. He is in anguish, grief-stricken and weak, to the extent that he feels ‘like broken pottery’(12). As well, his friends and neighbours flee from him in contempt and his very life is in danger. Yet, in the midst of it all, he writes:

But I trust in you, Lord;
    I say, ‘You are my God.’
My times are in your hands. Psalm 31:14–15a

Today, those hands are there for us too, whatever stage of life we are at – and they are indeed the safest hands imaginable because they belong to our loving, powerful Lord.

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