Year: 2016

Someone asked me a while back to teach her to knit, so after opening her new instruction book and reading a little, I started to put the yarn on the needles, a procedure called “casting on.” If I had just started without reading how to start, I would have been fine, but then I couldn’t remember just how to do it.

I laughingly told the girl, “Let me teach you to crochet instead,” so I found my crochet hooks and got her started.

After she left, of course, the mystery of what I was doing wrong was too strong to resist so I found my giant needlecraft book, which teaches all forms of needle work. And there I found out that there are two methods of “casting on” and either one works.

To prove I could still knit, I started casting on stitches until I had enough for a simple scarf and started knitting the stockinette, which is one row of knit, then reverse it and one row of purl. I then bought new yarn and finished a scarf.

You see, I learned to knit in Home Ec class in high school, back in the “old days.” After I was married, I taught myself to crochet, and never did knit another thing.

Isn’t it funny that 50 years after learning to knit, I still remember how? Like the multiplication tables or memory verses or hymns. Can you still remember 8 X 8 = 64? Or “a noun is a person, place, or thing”? What about “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see”?

If I were to say, “For God so loved. . .” how would you complete that line? Does that bring back the verse John 3:16? Does it bring back the memory of Vacation Bible school with Kool-aid and cookies?

I have memorized many verses, just by reading them, meditating on them, mulling them over in my mind, phrase by phrase. As Psalms 119:11 says, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.”

Sometimes when I want to remember something important, I write it on my hand, if my calendar isn’t handy. If I don’t do that to remind myself, I may not remember for days.

The palm of your hand is a very important part of you. It is always right there in front of you, where it can be seen. You use your hands for everything, so if something is written on your hand, it would be hard to forget.

God has a tattoo of you on the palm of His hands.

Isaiah 49:16 N IV “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”

You are important to God. He wants to constantly be reminded of you. Every time He stretches out His hand to do something, He sees you. What a comfort! If God be for us, who can be against us? The very one who gave His only begotten Son thinks about you every time He looks at the palm of His hand.

Sometimes it might seem like you are all alone in the world, but Jesus will never leave you. You may have lost your last friend, but you have a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Jesus Himself said, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you. I will go with you even to the end of the world.” I am never alone. He has promised never to leave me.

Tattooed on God’s hand is a permanent reminder of me to God. I am engraved where He will always hold me close.

I have probably spent one-quarter of my life taking pictures, looking at pictures, printing pictures, or going through pictures looking for a particular one. I suppose you could say that my hobby is photography. I have a lot of hobbies. Counted cross-stitch, needlepoint, sewing, and reading are the ones that come to mind, but the only one I regularly do is read. I don’t have time for them anymore.

A doctor asked me once what my hobbies were, and my grandson who was along for the ride said, “Facebook.” The doctor and I got a big laugh out of that, but I think the doctor believed him. Now if you are my Facebook friend, you’d probably agree with my grandson. It does seem like I am always on Facebook, but I am on there in spurts, not long continuous sessions.

It’s easy to let time slip away. How many days have gone by that I was so preoccupied with all that was going on that I didn’t spend enough time with the Lord, praying and reading His word?

Prayer and reading God’s word, the Bible, connects us to Him. It’s similar to the way the branch of a vine grows out from the root.

Jesus said, “I am the vine itself, you are the branches. It is the man who shares my life and whose life I share who proves fruitful.

But if you live your life in me, and my words live in your hearts, you can ask for whatever you like and it will come true for you. This is how my Father will be glorified—in your becoming fruitful and being my disciples.” John chapter 15, verses 5 and 7, J.B. Phillips New Testament.

It is so easy to get caught up in this world and distracted rather than studying God’s word and spending time in prayer, but if you make the choice to grow close to Jesus and study His word, you’ll be taking that first step toward being His disciple.

THE LANDMARKS

We made a little road trip over the edge of Arkansas from our hometown of Vinita, by way of the edge of Missouri, and came close to the location where Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Kansas come together, called a “Tri-point.” There’s another Tri-point located nearby, where Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri come together.

There are a lot of landmarks around the world which mark certain historical locations. One in our area is the place where the Battle of Cabin Creek during the Civil War took place in 1864. Reenactments now take place every third year, so 2016 is the year for it to take place again.

Landmarks have played an important part in the history of the United States. Each state from the earliest days of our country’s history was set up with a boundary and markers showing where it was to be located.

When the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River, before the battle of Jericho, God told Joshua to have twelve men each take a big stone out of the river and carry it with them as they entered the land of Canaan. Then God had the set twelve other stones in the middle of the Jordan River as a reminder.  In years to come when their children asked them what those stones meant, they were to say that those stones were to remind them that God had rolled back the waters of the Jordan River so they could cross over safely on dry land.

What has God done for you? Do you have reminders of God’s goodness set as a landmark in your memory? One way to set a landmark is to write in a journal every time God has answered your prayers or write down the good things He has done for you.

“Don’t forget that you were slaves in the land of Egypt. The Lord your God brought you out of Egypt with his great power and made you free.” Deuteronomy 5:15 ERV.