Acts 1:9-11 tells us how Jesus left this earth and that two angels told His disciples that He will return in the same manner in which He left. Wow, I think to myself HOW AMAZING is this? The manner in which He left is the manner in which He will return.
Yesterday, I had the absolute privilege to spend a day with a dear friend of mine, her daughter (and my daughter of course), attending one of Thea van Rooyen’s classes, from Thea se Poeierkamer. It was organised and hosted by Lynn Grobler from Journaling on the Way. In this class, we had to, yet again, FOLD something. I laughed a lot, as there was confusion at times, but not as much as on the Adorned camp, while making the very famous junk journal.
Later, while chatting with Thea, I found out that folding is her THING that she does. To fold something when attending one of her classes before journaling the page in your Bible. I STILL want to know HOW she got to the process of folding and sticking the envelopes together making the junk journal….? Yesterday, we folded an envelope that is not straight (if you have OCD then this is NOT the envelope to try and fold). Inside the envelope, she said that we must do SOAP. SOAP stands for Scripture, Objective, Action & Prayer.
I must admit, folding this envelope, was substantially easier than making the junk journal. This is more than likely due to the fact that 3 envelopes and glue were not involved in this process. If you do not understand what I am typing here, do not despair! Simply try to make a junk journal using only 3 envelopes, glue (in all the right places by the way) and old paper, then you will surely understand where the uncertainty came from to begin with!
The message yesterday was from the book of Acts. She explained it so beautifully and presented it in a way that I did not see before. Ascension Day (yes you guessed it – I had to Google this yet again), had long passed. We are now between Ascension Day and the Return of Jesus here on earth. Wow, I never thought of it like this before! We are all aiming to be like Jesus. We all make mistakes, because we are not perfect. We are in this world but we are not from this world.
The picture that we had to do in our Bibles, had clouds in the background. You do it in any color that you feel like. We do the technique with a chinese, as she refers to the brush we used (because it is imported from China if you were wondering why this reference was used and it is surely not to offend anyone!). I love the latest addition to my gadgets that I journal with, by the way! On any given day, I love anything that resembles a gadget. And if it can help me to do the journaling in my Bible, even more so!
Anyway, back to the page and her message. She tells us further that we all have a new address and that we should not forget to put our stamps in our picture, because that is where our post must go to. Even while on this earth, your address has changed. It has changed, because you are on your way up. Towards heaven. Therefore the house with the balloons from the movie UP. If you are happy in your house, then you decorate it nicely, make sure the garden is neat and tidy. She also taught us to hammer on a flower to make an impression on a paper, which is then in turn used in your bible. Of course the hammer we used is a crafting hammer, not a DIY one! I did not use mine, because it seems that my hammering technique did not work so well…but this is by no means an indication that I am not happy, it just did not work on my page!
I think about it for a moment. It is actually very simple. God uses us, broken people in a broken world, to make a difference and to lead people to Him in this process. Even if we all are full of mistakes (the Afrikaans word that best describes this is propvol) it does not hinder God to use us. We must continue to aim to be like Jesus. To ask for forgiveness when we make mistakes.
This makes me think of the song by Matthew West. Broken Things. I listen to the words which are so true. May we always remember that no one is perfect. May we always remember to ask for forgiveness and to forgive like Jesus forgave us and all of those who sinned against Him. This is hard, right? But so worth it to reach the end destination. Heaven. Eternity.
You use broken things I hear the words move around in my head. The first will be last and the last will be first……
In die wolke
