Isn't it absolutely breathtakingly beautiful??
I have been so very blessed this past week by simply taking time off from our very busy home schooling schedule. The break from the hustle and bustle, thinking and brain work has really given all of us a much needed respite.
I've found that when one clears their mind and simply rests from daily life that the Lord is able to be heard more readily and therefore able to drop a proverbial BOMB of blessings right in to one's lap. This week has been such a blessing. God is so good!
I finished this afghan in September 2011 for my nephew.
I love making baby afghans. With every stitch I pray for that precious child, their Mommy and Daddy, any siblings they may have and for God's blessings and guidance on their lives. I feel so very priviledged to offer this simple blessing of prayer and warmth upon these precious little ones.
The above picture was taken on September 27th. About a week before, I was starting the edging on this afghan and I suddenly had thoughts pricking my heart about making another afghan. I thought to myself, "This can't be. I don't know of any other friends or family members who needed a baby afghan. That one friend expecting in December...no, she didn't need an afghan. Ok God, I know you have a reason for bringing this to my mind. You'll have to fill in the details for me and show me what you want me to do with it, but Lord, who is this for?" I kept it in my heart for about a week and continued to pray. I couldn't shake it. It wouldn't go away. It began to feel more like a pang of urgency, so I told my husband about it. He couldn't have been more supportive when he said, "Then I guess you'd better start gathering all that you need to make this afghan." My heart leaped for JOY!!!!
I gathered the yarn first. I felt the Lord telling me to do a light baby green, so that is what I bought. I love the feel of this yarn. What a blessing this will be to someone! I had already been asking the Lord what else to do, how to make this and what size needle. This is how I began:
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| 310 Stitches of Love--10-15-2011 |
I didn't have the needles and cables that I needed for the time it was going to take to finish this project when I started it, but I felt such urgency, so I started it on the size needles I felt the Lord was directing me to. I worked on it a little each day. Each time I worked on it, I prayed for the family who would be receiving this afghan. I prayed for their hearts, for their spirits, for their lives. My heart went through my prayers, through my fingers and in to this afghan. I know when one says that they put their very heart and soul in to their works of art, that's how I felt, but moreso...brought to tears praying on behalf of this family who I didn't know. Does this happen to others? I kept thinking, "What if I just did my own thing and ignored this?" *sigh* I reminded myself to remember Ninevah...the whale...and whale barf. *sigh* "Ok, Lord, I surrender."
That was started in mid-October 2011. As the past 6 months have gone by, I've worked on this project gradually because of my carpal tunnel problems. I can knit 3 rows a day on this and then my wrists start hurting. I've surrendered it to God. He gives me just enough strength to work on 3 rows a day. By the time the end of the 3rd row comes along, He reminds me that it is through pain and tears that the most beautiful things in life come to into existence.
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| 10 Days of Progress--10/25/2011 |
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| 11-14-2011 |
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| 11-26-2011 |
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| Cables long enough to hold the afghan and needles to use on it. These are harmonywood needles from Knitpicks. |
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| 2-4-2012 |
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| Close Up on 2-4-2012 |
For 6 months I've worked on this afghan just a bit every day, still not knowing who God had chosen to receive this afghan.
...until this week...
I've seen God work in my life with such profoundness in hindsight, I've been in awe. Now, though, in hindsight I continually stand in awe at how God strategically placed a dear friend and I together. I didn't know it was supposed to go to her until I read a comment of her's on Facebook in a private group where she told everyone of all the gut wrenching heartache she's felt this past year after miscarrying 2 precious little babies. As I read of all of her pain, I felt a wave of confirmation and insight come over me. The wave felt (physically) just like walking from air conditioning in to an extremely breath takingly hot summer day. I was so overwhelmed by it that I felt like I would start wheezing as if I had actually walked out in to a very hot humid summer day, much like I had done before, but this was the middle of February! And, in the middle of my living room! The confirmation came. I never thought this afghan would be used pre-baby, but that is precisely how God works. His ways are not our ways. In my own humanness, I thought the friend would be pregnant already and waiting for a precious babe to come. This afghan was meant to give hope, warmth and reasurrance.
There is someone in heaven to stand up for me and take my side. My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God. I want someone to plead with God for me, as one pleads for a friend.
(Job 16:19-21)
And so, for all the heartache I have felt for the loss of all of our wee babes, for this precious friend and her lovely wonderful family and for the hope of healing their hearts and wait for God to bless them with a wee one, with renewed strength of resolve, I'll surrender daily. God has a way of reminding me to surrender myself daily, now that I think about it.
And another afghan has pricked my heart...
To God be the glory great things He has done!
Now, if I could just hand deliver this afghan to her, THAT would be totally GOD!!!!
(1) If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
(2) And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
(3) And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
(4) Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
(5) doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;
(6) rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;
(7) beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
(8) Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.
(9) For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;
(10) but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.
(11) When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.
(12) For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.
(13) But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
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| Knitting Time--which means snuggle time for Biscuit. |
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| 2-23-2012 |
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| Close Up 2-23-2012 |
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| February 11, 2013--Just finished this morning! |
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| Close up. |
This will go out in the mail on Friday morning. :)
