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"In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone Lord, make me dwell in safety..." - I was very happy to be commissioned this piece for a friend's sweet niece. The Lord watches over all his children, big and small ☺️ No better rest than in the Lord. I reeeally gotta learn to take it easy and have some more white space in my life 🧖🏻‍♀️
The chords of my nib scratching on paper always seem to be in the same key as my favourite love songs ✨ Nothing else seems to slow me down like a good calligraphy workout. It's a little romantic eh? ❤️
Throwback Thursday to this day, almost a year and a half ago, when we began our adventure. I am so proud to call you my husband Alex! Your love keeps me warm all winter ☺️ (and a little bit of 🤢 am I right)... photo by @lisabangphoto! ❤️
Felt like reading Jane Austen last night... mmm
Hebrews 9. Christ being my mediator is probably one of the best things I can hear in my lifetime. Think about it. It no longer rests on my shoulders to be right before God. There are no rituals to perform or prayers to say or songs to sing for me to justify my position before God. This chapter goes into some detail about the old covenant and what was required of the priests. People had to be very careful in order to come before God. There were regulations for worship. The priests went into the first section of the tent (the Holy Place) to prepare and make sacrifices, but only the high priest was permitted to go into the second section of the tent (the Most Holy Place)... and that was only once a year! The list of rules and rituals goes on (seriously, for CHAPTERS in the Old Testament!). Now when we focus our attention on Christ... and his role as a new mediator for a new covenant... the only thing I can think about is freedom. We are FREE from the old ways... Christ is the one who sacrificed himself for us. Perfectly pure, perfectly holy. He is the one interceding for us. Hallelujah! God is so near to us. We don't need to wait for a priest or an annual tradition or any cleansing to speak to him. We don't need to come to him with our lives in order and our sins confessed. We have instant (yesss! Instant!!) access to our Father and this is mediated by Jesus Christ himself. I feel so restful going to sleep tonight, knowing that I can come to God just as I am... and be fully assured of where my home is.
"These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." There's a lot of talk of "Joy" during this Christmas season. But what is it? It's definitely not something you can conjure up on your own. Isn't that strange? It's not something we can will for ourselves but something that is given. Joy comes from the Lord. While happiness may be a fleeting and light feeling, joy is not momentary and is certainly not light. It is deep and long-lasting and heavy and overwhelming. It causes the fog to lift and allows us to see how beautiful and wonderful Christ is. It's a deep stirring and longing in our hearts for something more... there's hope, anticipation, excitement, and assurance of something so, so good. When Jesus came into the world on Christmas, it truly was the manifestation of these things... He was the word made flesh! All of God's promises, all of the prophecies, all that people were waiting for had arrived. And because joy is given to us, all we have to do is enter in it. Enter into joy and be filled with it. Praying that your joy in Christ would be overflowing this year!
It's that crazy time of the year when my hands become jittery from too much coffee (to stay warm!) and excitement of the holidays... wrapping up my last projects of the year this week while beginning the advent season with a favourite devotional! (The Dawning of Indestructible Joy by John Piper!) Woohoo! 💙
Happy Friday!!! What a long week - and it's totally not over - but I feel blessed to be able to do what I love during the week and REST during the weekend. It's super hard to find time to doodle and practice my lettering between all the to do's of Life but it's all about carving out that time to just do it. Last night I cleared a few hours to play around with some old markers and play some piano. Prioritizing the things that are life-giving is pretty... life giving!! And with that... happy weekend Toronto! 🌧
That time I was traveling alone in Spain and learned (by way of swelling face and body hives) I was allergic to cats 🐈 but that was the night I also learned I was married to a caring and detail-oriented person when I found out he packed me some antihistamines (who packs those just in case?!) in my luggage! Hehe #throwbackthursday #cats #iwantacorgi #teamcorgi #ilovecorgis #birthdaycorgipleasealex #alexplease!!
Hebrews 8. Good morning Toronto! I dragged myself out of bed this morning but reading Hebrews 8 gave me refreshment in my soul and I hope it does the same for you. The Bible has so many metaphors of the "old and new." There's talk about a new creation, new songs, new promises, new wineskins, new names, new covenants, new hearts, new selves, new life! The entire Old Testament is simply a grand foreshadow of Jesus, who brings something so revolutionary and ✨new✨. All throughout Hebrews, we've read about these priests and rituals and this chapter sums it up so nicely for us. The Old Testament law was merely a copy and shadow of what was to come. When God gave the Israelites the priest system, it was perfectly intentional and crafted for them at the time; but it was only a glimpse into what God had in store for the future. The Advent season is all about remembering the new covenant that God has made into reality for us. He takes the old, makes it obsolete, and then gives us something perfect. Jesus is the perfect high priest. We no longer have to rely on a sacrificial system or a human priest to make us right with God... Jesus died for us so that all of that reliance would go on Him and not us. We're not made right with God because of our behaviours, our choices, our lifestyles... and by the same token, we're not made wrong with God because of our mistakes. Our salvation rests SOLELY on Jesus, who is our mediator. He fights for us. This new law is given to us by God and written on our hearts. Isn't that beautiful? We're not expected to go and find it ourselves! He puts it in our hearts and He will be our God and we shall be His people. We live in the REALITY of the new covenant now... no more shadows and copies... just the real deal👌🏼