Friday, April 20, 2012

Following the Pattern

I have been going crazy sewing the past two days. In fact, I'll be getting back to it in a few minutes. I have a dress I need to finish.

The reason I am doing so much sewing (with help from two great friends who have excellent seamstress and costuming skills) is that I will be re-enacting Ann Hasseltine Judson again this Sunday. I'm excited. :)

But about the sewing. I am not the most experienced seamstress in the world and I picked an easy pattern. There  is only so much that can be done to make a regency dress easy to sew, however, and sometimes I find myself confused with the directions. Like with sleeve binding this morning. I have never made one of those before and the instructions did not seem to make sense. As I got started though and worked with the fabric, things became clearer, until finally they clicked. At points I was tempted to abandon the written words and just jump ahead, but that would have been disaster. I stuck with what I was told and it worked. Now I know how to make a seam binding.

Sometimes, I think it is like that with the Bible. What we see written seems to make know sense. We might not get how to obey never mind why. But as we move ahead, things become clearer. We begin to see what it is that God is asking us and something of what his reasons are. We grow closer to understanding.

Take the concept of Sabbath, for instance. We are asked to take one day in seven to "rest." How do we do that when there is always something else to accomplish? Some things like that will solve themselves. Once working on Sunday is not an option, we find solutions.

A friend of mine and I were chatting about the old Massachusetts Blue Laws that were repealed about 20 years ago. They used to prohibit most businesses from opening on Sunday. Setting aside going to church, the law gave (almost) everyone a common day off, a sort of forced relaxation day. Nobody ran errands on Sunday and kids' activities weren't usually scheduled for that day.

Once it became possible to work and shop on Sundays, people did. We lost the idea of Sabbath rest. Life got a little crazier and a little faster.

I don't think we'll ever get back to that concept as a state, but if we commit to it as individuals, I think we will find a way. When we start to follow the pattern it begins to make sense.

How have you found that to work in your life?




I am participating in the Ultimate Blogging Challenge. This is post 17 of 30 I need to write in April.

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