Advent 2020 - Christmas Music

 Devotion for the Week...

It's the first week of Advent! Is your tree up yet? Ours isn't, that will be our task next weekend, but I have been listening to lots of Christmas music 😊

This year for our Advent devotions, I'm going to look at four of our Christmas traditions and their origins in the Bible. Today I'm starting with all that Christmas music I've been enjoying. It's usually one of the first signs of Christmas approaching, but in the biblical accounts of Jesus' birth there are no mentions of anyone singing or playing any music. We almost always associate the host of angels who visited the shepherds with singing, but that's not what Luke records. "Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others—the armies of heaven—praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased'" (Luke 2:13-14).

But just because there's no biblical record of music around Jesus' birth doesn't mean we shouldn't have music to celebrate it today! There are plenty of times in the Bible that we are told to sing. These are just a few examples:

Ephesians 5:18-19: "be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts." 

Psalm 100:1-2 says, "Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing with joy." 

Psalm 147:1 says, "Praise the Lord! How good to sing praises to our God! How delightful and how fitting."

And Psalm 95:1-2 says, "Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him." That's in the New Living Translation, which is what I usually use. In the King James Version, though, those verses say, "O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms." That is very appropriate for me since my singing is definitely more on the level of joyful noise than actual music!

Jesus coming to earth as a baby, the beginning of salvation for everyone who believes, is an event more than worthy of the many, many songs that have been written in celebration. As Psalm 147 says, it is fitting that we sing songs of praise about His birth.

I once heard a preacher point out that Christmas is the one time of the year when the whole world is signing the songs of the church. Isn't that wonderful? I wonder how many people have first heard the message about Jesus in a song about His birth or how many have found themselves drawn to Him when they heard those familiar songs again and it reached a place in their hurting hearts. Only at Christmas are songs about Him broadcast in stores and restaurants, in concerts on TV and just about everywhere else a person can go.

This Advent season, I'll be making my joyful noise to Him. There's plenty of Christmas music to sing along with, after all, and He doesn't mind that I can't sing worth beans 😊

What are your favourite Christmas songs? Mary's Boy Child, by Boney M, has been my favourite ever since I was a little girl.

Sneak Peeks

Being a quilt blogger is hard when you've signed up for a bunch of fun things that mean you're sewing, but you can't share it yet! I have three projects coming up the first week of December, so I thought I'd share some sneak peeks today.

Quilt Block Mania is coming next Tuesday and I have a fabulous scrappy block to share. I love it so much I made four blocks instead of the one that is required. I'm not sure if I'll have time to get it quilted before Tuesday, but I'd really like to.

I've started working on the annual cross stitch ornaments for my boys. I'm only making two this year, since it was always my plan to only go until they finished high school. I'm trying only stitching from the front, like this, and it seems like it's a bit faster, especially where there are blocks of the same colour. 

The Love and Kisses blog hop starts soon and my day to share is on the 6th. I'll be sharing a new version of my Bloom block and it looks so completely different in the colours of the Love and Kisses fabric line! The background is solid this time, which means the swirl hook quilting shows up soooo well 😍

Are you wanting to learn free motion quilting? I just learned about the Intro to FMQ mini course, which would be a great way to get started. Full disclosure, I'm an affiliate for HollyAnne's courses, which means I earn a commission if you purchase the course after clicking my link. I haven't taken Intro to FMQ, but I'm all about enabling you to learn fmq because it's so much fun 😊

Another blog tour I'm working on is the Designer Knits tour for Riley Blake. I'll be sharing three new garment makes, one from a Love Notions pattern and the others from Sinclair Patterns, from these fabrics, plus a solid grey that is already stitched up.

I can share this Harper cardigan I made as a test, before making the version for the blog hop. I bought this sweater knit last year to make a different cardigan, but when it arrived I discovered it wasn't as wide as most garment fabric, so there wasn't enough. Lesson learned - check the fabric width before ordering! The Harper (a free pattern from Sinclair) has different length options, though, so I could just barely squeak out a cropped version.

Because I was so focused on fitting all the pieces on the fabric I had, I wasn't paying attention when I cut the sleeves and I forgot to flip the pattern piece over for the second one. That meant I had two right sleeves (or two left, I'm not sure)...whomp, whomp...and no extra fabric to cut a replacement. After staring at it for a while, I figured I might as well keep going so I'd at least be able to tell how well the cardigan fit, even if one of the sleeves was weird. Luckily for me, the shape of the sleeves isn't all that different from the front to the back, so it isn't weird at all! I love wearing it and I'm so glad I didn't just give up when I realized my mistake.

Aside from all the sewing I've been doing, I'm also thinking a lot about next year and what goals I want to set. I've been designing more quilts, too. I've added at least two to my to-make list the past week or so, which explains why that list never gets any shorter 😊

How many things are you working on right now? And how many are you dreaming about??

Crowd Noise

 Devotion for the Week...

Have you ever been in a group of people where everyone is talking, sharing their ideas or telling their stories and you have something to say but it's impossible to get a word in edgewise? It's so frustrating, isn't it? Especially if you're more prone to being quiet and letting others speak rather than pushing yourself to the forefront. It's hard to feel like your voice and your contribution matter when everyone is always speaking over you.

Now, just think about how many people are praying at any given moment. It's a mind-boggling number, right? And yet God can hear us. All at the same time. We're never told to wait in line, to take turns, to worry about whether or not someone else is already talking to Him.

Here are a few verses to consider:

"In those days when you pray, I will listen" (Jeremiah 29:12)

"Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

"And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for" (1 John 5:14-15)

"Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere" (Ephesians 6:18).

Major League Baseball had crowd noise piped in during their games this year, to make up for the fact that there were no actual fans there. When you read the phrase 'crowd noise,' you can imagine the sound, can't you? It's that constant buzz created by the chatter of thousands of people. Now imagine the crowd noise created by the millions of people being persistent in their prayers right now as you read this. Imagine trying to get a word in edgewise in that conversation!

I don't understand how it's possible, but God doesn't hear crowd noise. He can be fully present in every conversation at all times or He would have told us to use some kind of schedule or mediator so we could be sure He was paying attention when we were talking to Him. Instead, He tells us to pray at all times and on every occasion and He assures us that He hears us whenever we pray. 

Background quilt is Windows

I find it reassuring to know our prayers aren't just crowd noise to God!