Mummy’s classy work!

Mummy has a classy touch for arts and crafts. I grew up watching my mom sew my clothes; make gorgeous christmas decor with craft-paper for home and our local church in Chennai; make beautiful fabric-paintings for my school-fair and make pretty dresses for my cousin Becky and I. Not to mention my biology record drawings as well, of frogs and cockroaches 🐸🪳!!!! The list of things mummy made was truly endless.

I know where she got it from. Her Mom! Gamma (grandma) had a hand for artwork too!!! Mummy still has the tracing paper outlines of pretty flowers and beautiful birds perched on tree branches – drawn by Gamma.

Mummy tried to teach me to sew. I don’t think I took an interest to that. I wasn’t particularly interested in sewing. But I’ve taken interest to craft work. I don’t know how it happened, but it feels so good to create something you can call … “I MADE IT!!!” 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, our church was raising funds for the victims of the Turkey earthquake. At first we were just going to give an offering. But then that weekend we went to H.O.B.B.Y L.O.B.B.Y!!!! 😃😃They had beautiful pieces of plain wood for 90% off clearance prices. Obviously it was a must-buy, although I had NO-IDEA what I was going to do with it. 😄

That weekend we were visiting our friends from our Tamil Church, Ajantha and Praveen, because it was long-overdue…since we had missed their house-warming which happened almost a year ago. I usually like to give hand-made pieces as gifts to friends and family, so I decided to make a scripture plaque for their family. I asked Ajantha what her favorite scripture was and she said “The Lord will perfect everything that concerns me.” Psalm 138:8.

Scripture plaque # 1

I set off to work. I stained the plain wood with walnut colored wood stain which I think looked gorgeous! Then using my stencil and a sharpie, I wrote the scripture on the wooden plaque, added some pretty orange and yellow flowers on it to finish it off. It took me about 3 hours to make this one, which I did not expect. Nonetheless, I was content with the end result. This was Friday night.

All along, I was also thinking of making another two scripture plaques and taking it to church for folks to buy it and the proceeds be donated toward the Turkey relief fund. I had not even started work yet. Since it took me roughly 3 hours to do Ajantha’s scripture plaque, I was anticipating this should probably take the same amount of time for each scripture plaque – a total of at least 6 hours.

Scripture Plaque # 2

Jiana lovessss to paint and she often asks me if we can work on a “project”. So I handed over the brush and poured some paint in a palette and got my assistant to work!! For this one, I thought of giving it a white background, just to make the scripture stand out. Next, I was contemplating what scripture to have on the plaque! I have a ton of favorite scriptures and wasn’t sure which one I wanted, on it!

After much thought, I finalised on Psalm 27:1 for one of the plaques.

Long story short, this Psalm was what I clung to during a difficult season. Everytime I read this Psalm, it felt like drinking fresh water from a spring.

Psalm 27:1-3

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.

Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.

Scripture plaque # 3

For the next plaque, I just couldn’t make up my mind. I had to again choose from a plethora of scriptures that are close to my heart. I first wanted to do, “God is the strength of my heart and portion forever.” It would have fit the plaque perfectly… but I felt I should write Psalm 23:1.

I had a problem here! The plaque had 8 lines. I could easily fit in: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” But I didn’t have enough room to write, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” The sentence was too long… I needed a shorter sentence to fit in there perfectly. I was contemplating several other scriptures, but my mind always landed back again in Psalm 23.

As I was musing within myself quietly, a sudden thought came to my mind to keep it simple and write, “He leads me.” What incredible words of Hope, just from that simple phrase!!!

It is a great reminder, especially at such a time as this, to every child of God, that He leads and we simply follow. The Sheep is not a smart animal which makes its own decisions like any other animal. It is a very dependent/dumb animal. Absolutely abandons itself to the leading of the Shepherd. Left to itself, it does one thing best. Strays! 🐑 So, the Shepherd has to keep his watchful eye on his flock. And that’s our greatest HOPE.

We may not know what kind of financial decisions we may need to make when economies fail… we may not know what’s the best course for our kids to take in the times ahead…. we know nothing about what the future brings…but one thing we all know is that our SHEPHERD LEADS OUR WAY!!! We simply follow!!!

““The LORD knows those who are his,” 2 Timothy 2:19

Both my scripture plaques turned out beautiful and I’m so so glad I took time to make them!!

Pics below:

A. Psalm 138:8 for Praveen and Ajantha’s home.