Hems

I actually have a title for this picture:

QUALITY TIME

Today my in-laws came and took my kids to their house today for a play date with some cousins. I usually go to Bible study on Wed. and I had a HUGE DECISION to make. Do I go to Bible study, see friends, pray, and generally be fed. OR, stay home knit, card and spin, read and do various other sundry things ALONE with out my helpers? Boy, I tell you it was a tough decision. And I opted to go to study. I walked the mile to my friends house. Beautiful day!!!!

The study was great, as usual. God really spoke to me today and I think I will share it with you, if you are interested, read on!!!! It DOES tie into knitting.
Easter is HERE!!! Resurrection!!! Hallelujah!!! But, did you know that the Jewish Passover celebration coincides with this holiday? It does. The Passover is an ancient celebration of the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt. God miraculously set His people free! And, BTW, that is what we were studying today in Bible study, the book of Exodus. We are at the parting of the Red Sea.

Well, God took His people the long way to the Red Sea. Put them in an impossible situation. There were mountains on either side of a million plus people, a deep sea in front of them, and Pharaoh's army (with chariots, the equivalent of a F-14 today) behind them. That doesn't seem fair. God brought them to a place to either drown or be slaughtered. God, "hemmed them in."

Have you ever been there? I have. Circumstances with mom on either side of me and no way to go, but through the sea. Chased by my own demons, bent on my destruction. I was so PISSED OFF at God. You have no idea how much. The last thing I wanted to do was to be the caretaker of my CRAZY mother. I had my own life to live, children to raise, and a baby on the way.

Frequently it is said, that God doesn't give us more than we are able to bear. Bull. I have found it to be that I am FREQUENTLY asked to bear more than I can handle, without God. With God..... that is a different story. Let us just say that I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES!! Personal, huge ones!! I had to go to court and become the caretaker of my mother. And let me tell you, it has been a huge personal sacrifice!!! The hardest thing I have ever done. BUT!!!!!!, God healed me. I faced my own shit (if this offends you, sorry, but that is what it is and no other word will do) , got my head together, and I am well on my way to becoming the woman God intends me to be! That is a MIRACLE of epic proportions!!! Hallelujah!!!

Moving on. Why does God "hem us in?" I think that it is an act of love. Take Rogue for example. There is a hem on the bottom and on the sleeves. I don't HAVE to hem them. They will just have an grossly, ugly curl at the bottom. So..... I suck it up and hem. And the results are beautiful. God hemmed me in to face my own demons. The results are beautiful.

I'll leave you with this Psalm:
O, Lord, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.

You hem me in-behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go to flee from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed int he depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths
of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,
O God!
How vast the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I am awake,
I am still with you.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:1-18 and 23-24