Do it yourself: snowglobes

I found Do It Yourself snow globe idea on another blog and thought it would be really fun and cute to make. If you nanny or have kids this would be a fun project to do with them. Although I have to admit that I sort of want to try one myself

http://theperfectpearpair.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-12-04T20%3A24%3A00-08%3A00

Fear

“you are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear”

I read this passage and thought about how many times in the past three months I have given way to fear. Fear that what God has for me is not what I want. Fear that what God has for me will be years from now before it is fulfilled.  Fear that I will never be able to love again. Fear that I will never be free from wanting what is not for me to have. I think of all these fears. How they swirl in my brain, one after the other taking prominence and then fading into the background as the next one steps forward to take its place. 

 I’ve always prided myself on not being and not doing the very attitudes and actions that have come to represent me in the past few months. Now I am afraid of the shift in my identity. Who am I now? What will I be when this is all over?

I am afraid of the past, of going back to that place where darkness reigns, where everything is hidden behind the veil and I am made of glass but won’t break.

I am afraid.

But I am also Sarah’s daughter. I am a child of the covenant. I am Christ’s sister.  I have an Advocate in the heavenly throne room. One who conquered fear and stands in defiance of it. One who will slay fear and put all his enemies to flight when He comes again with the hosts of heaven. I am his daughter and his sister. I am his and “no power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand.” I stand justified and I am in the process of being sanctified.

Sanctification is what every Christian dreads and longs for. Holiness. He is too pure, too good for us and yet we long to be like him, to be free finally from all that entangles us. We long to taste his goodness to be as much like him as we possibly can regardless of the cost. Do I sometimes fear the cost? Of course I do. But somehow, I also know that by these sacrifices I make, I am coming closer to that day when I worship in the heavenly throne room, when the sacrifices and hardships and trials I have made here will be counted completely as loss compared with seeing Him who I long to see. Jesus crucified. Jesus glorified. Jesus king. Jesus master. Jesus.

Make me more ready for that day, Jesus. When I think of that day there is no more to fear. Fear, death and suffering have been outdone. They can harm me no more.  

I'll be honest and say I'm having an incredibly rough go of it the past three months. I feel as if my heart is being pulled in two opposite directions and I know what I must do, but that doesn't make the doing of it any easier. I want to do the right thing, but at the same time the right thing to do is also my least favorite option. The narrow gate and the narrow road have always been the hardest paths to stay on, and for good reason. God, grant me strength to face this test and when all is over to stand before you still.

Answers

excerpt from Till We Have Faces: "I ended my first book with the words no answer. I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?"

prettiness

No words -none.

They were stolen from my breath

Before my tongue formed them

My hands traced them

My body taught them.

They were small. So small.

And how could they withstand

The weight of silence

Its barreling force crushing in its path

Stolen moments from borrowed days

I could not give them back if I tried.

They were not mine to give or take

But they felt so right in my hands

Shivering with greed.

There were no words.

Broken fragments gathered from

The shattered bottle speak

But this

This is victory of a different kind.

I wish I didn't understand this

I cannot live with You-
It would be Life_
And Life is over there-
Behind the Shelf-

The Sexton keeps the Key to
Putting up
Our Life- His Porcelain_
Like a Cup-

Discarded of the Housewife-
Quaint - or Broke-
A newer Sevres pleases-
Old Ones crack-

I could not die-with You-
For One must wait
To shut the Other's Gaze down-
You- could not-

And I- Could I stand by
And see You -freeze-
Without my Right of Frost-
Death's privilege?

Nor could I rise-with You-
Because Your Face
Would put out Jesus'-
That New Grace

Grow plain-and foreign
On my homesick Eye-
Except that You than He
Shone closer by-

They'd just Us-How-
For You- served Heaven-
You know,
Or sought to-
I could not-

Because You saturated Sight-
And I had no more Eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise

And were You lost, I would be-
Though My Name
Rang loudest
On the Heavenly fame-

And were You- saved-
And I- condemned to be
Where You were not-
That self- were Hell to Me-

So We must meet apart-
You there- I - here-
With just the Door ajar
That Oceans are- and Prayer-
And that White Sustenance-
Despair-

Emily D.