We Don't Know

Devotion for the week...

Have you ever been shocked when you heard that someone had an affair, or that a couple were splitting up, when you thought they were happy together? I have been, more than once. I remember saying to Paul, after hearing about one that was especially shocking to me, that it just goes to show we never really know what's going on in someone else's house.

I thought of that recently when I read 1 Timothy 5:24-25: "Remember, the sins of some people are obvious, leading them to certain judgment. But there are others whose sins will not be revealed until later. In the same way, the good deeds of some people are obvious. And the good deeds done in secret will someday come to light." Just as we don't always know what happens in another couple's marriage, we also don't always know what another person is really doing.

Some people look good from the outside, but inside they're full of stuff they're hiding from the world. They know how to maintain a good image and hide who they really are. Jesus said the religious leaders of His day were like this. "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity" (Matthew 23:27). Those are harsh words, especially considering they were directed at people who were supposedly living for God. 

On the flip side, some people look like regular people, just doing their best to take care of themselves and their families, while they're really taking care of much more than that. They don't flaunt the ways they help others, but they're always doing what they can. Whether it's large financial contributions to important causes, meals taken to people who are sick, sending encouraging notes or texts, or visits to people who are lonely, there's no end to the possible good deeds being done by people who aren't looking for credit for what they do. These people have taken to heart what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount: "Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you" (Matthew 6:4).

Two things stand out to me as I think about these different types of people. First is that God won't be surprised when the hidden things are revealed. He already knows the hidden sins and the hidden good deeds. Though the world at large doesn't see, He does. "O Lord, you have examined my heart / and know everything about me. / You know when I sit down or stand up. / You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. / You see me when I travel / and when I rest at home. / You know everything I do. / You know what I am going to say / even before I say it, Lord" (Psalm 139:1-4).

The second thing that stands out to me is a simple question: What is hidden behind the image everyone sees of me?

1,999 Hexagons

I almost can't believe this is true... My Rainbow Hexie quilt top is finished! Can you guess how many hexagons are in it (hint, I may have given it away in the post title)?

I've been working on it since November 2016, so that's 8 years! You can see my first post about it here. I did take a break from it through 2020 and most of 2021, when I worked on my temperature quilt instead.

This has been my travel project, accompanying me on a lot of trips all over Newfoundland, to Nova Scotia, Ontario, Alberta, and Massachusetts. For most of those trips, I made sure my stitching was packed before I worried about packing my clothes! Thankfully, Paul would rather drive than be passenger, so he drives and I stitch. I've worked on it while waiting for services to start at our provincial women's ministries conference, and on the sidelines of Zachary's and Nathan's sports tournaments, on airplanes, and in airports, hotels, and Airbnbs. I've also worked on it at home, of course, and it has been a featured project in all of the WIPS-B-GONE challenges I've hosted.

I wouldn't even be able to try to guess how many hours have gone into it. We'll just say a lot! I can tell you there are 1,999 1" hexagons (meaning each side of the hexagon measures 1"), and the finished quilt top measures 63" x 78". The original layout (see it in this post) had the rainbow offset and was slightly smaller. It would have required 1,161 hexies. When it came time to do the purple ring, I decided to center the rainbow and add black all around to frame it, which added the extra 838 hexies. Of course, with 1,999 hexies, I feel like it needs one more! I think I'll applique one to the back after the quilting and binding.

Because I needed so many for the background, I've bought quarter yard cuts of quite a few black or black and white fabrics in order to get a good variety of prints. The center flower of black hexies looks so cute.

For the other colours, though, I used whatever was in my stash and scraps, along with some that were given to me by friends. As with any scrap quilt, it's fun to look at all the different prints. I love these jack-o-lanterns! There are three of them scattered around the orange ring.

And I bought this blue with white flowers to make myself a skirt years ago. Quilting cotton doesn't always work well for clothes, but this was a circle skirt, so the cut of it kept it nice and flowy.

I love looking at the back, too!

As I've been getting close to the finish the past few months, I've been thinking about how I want to quilt it, and I've decided I want to do big stitch hand quilting. That means I'll get to spend a lot more hours working on it before it's a true finish. I'm quite happy with that, to be honest. I ordered the Aurifil 12 wt colours I needed to supplement the ones I had on hand, and they arrived today. Now I just need to get it basted so I can start the quilting!

In case you're worried that I now have no travel project, let me set your mind at rest 😂 I have another EPP project that has been waiting for attention, though for this one all the EPP is finished and I'm attaching the stars to their backgrounds. In fact, I apparently abandoned those stars in favour of the Hexie Rainbow, as they were started back in 2014, but had to be put in time out when I wasn't happy with the way it was going. Then I came up with the current plan for them, but the hexies had already taken over. I've picked up the stars off and on over the years, and now only need to add a few more to their background squares before the hand stitching part will be finished.

You might say attaching a few stars to their backgrounds doesn't sound like much, and you'd be right. It takes about 45 minutes to stitch one star to its background, so it's only a few hours of stitching left to go. It's okay, though, because I have a plan for a brand new EPP project. Of course I do! I may have also already stitched a test sample and be itching to really get going on it. You can be sure I'll share about it soon!

For now, I'm excited to have my Hexie Rainbow quilt top finished, and I'm looking forward to starting the big stitch hand quilting. I used to hand quilt all my quilts, but I've never done the big stitch version. The question is, can I finish the quilting before this is a 10 year project? I have two years...

Representative

Devotion for the week...

I am Canadian, so I had no vote in the US election last week. Like a lot of other people, though, I was watching coverage of the candidates leading up to it. I looked at the two presidential candidates through the lens of 'who would I choose to represent me?' Meaning, as they went about their work both domestically and on the world stage, which of the two would I be happy to say was speaking for me? This is one of the things our elected government leaders do, after all, no matter which country we are in. We elect them to represent us as "the Canadian people," or "the American people," or "the whichever-country people." They become a stand-in for us with people who don't know us personally.

Unbelievably, God has chosen us to represent Him. Colossians 3:17 says, "And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father." We are a stand-in for God with people who don't know Him personally. You've likely heard it before, but another reminder never goes astray: everything we say and do can be seen by the people around us as a representation of how God Himself would act in those situations. 

That should make us stop and think carefully about what we say and do.

Psalm 145:8-9 says, "The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation."

Would people say we are merciful? Compassionate? Slow to get angry? Filled with unfailing love? Good to everyone? Showering His creation with compassion? If not, we're not doing a good job representing Him, because He is all of those things.

 If, as is often said, we are the only Bible some people will ever read, what are they learning about God from us? Are we representing Him accurately, in a way that would want to make them know Him better?

Thankfully, we can rely on the Holy Spirit to help us represent Him better. Through prayer and sensitivity to His leading, He will cause the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us. "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23) are all excellent ways to represent God to the people around us!