Fall Fun Was Had by All

"I'm slowing to see the Cross in the clothespin, the Divine in the daily, God in the everyday." --Ann Voscamp

I spent all of Saturday morning preparing for the 2nd Annual Day of Fall Fun -- a plaid-clad celebration of autumn, complete with seasonal activities and tastes. I arose, my mind swimming with thoughts of cleaning, baking, table-setting... I was already two cups of coffee in when I calmed to sit and read for a few minutes. In the midst of my journaling, my mind turned to reflection upon last year's Day of Fall Fun...

Still semi-new to town, I had planned the event in desperate attempt to make some headway with newly-formed friendships. I hesitate to revisit my journals from my first few painful months here, for each page was soaked with crippling loneliness. As I sat in the sunroom of my new home on Saturday, I couldn't help but think how drastically my life has changed in the short time since then.

In thanksgiving I was led to the Psalms, opening up to these verses in chapter 16: I say to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.' I say of the godly who are in the land, 'They are the noble people in whom is all my delight.' In the message, the latter verse reads: "And these G0d-chosen lives all around -- what splendid friends they make!"

Reading this, my heartbeat sped up, thinking of how my house would soon be filled with my own splendid friends - lives that God has so ordained to intersect with mine. I turned back to my busy preparations, all the while, thanking the Lord that in being hospitable, I was/am being generous with the gifts He Himself gives to me. (Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:10.) I can honestly say with full heart, that I discovered a new way to worship my Lord this weekend - not by doing something I have never done before, but by dedicating an old love to a newfound purpose.

In The Gentle Art of Domesticity, Jane Brocket says, "Inspiration is inspiration, whether the end result is a painted masterpiece, a soul-searching sonnet, a richly colored homemade quilt or a batch of freshly baked scones. We shouldn't diminish our creativity by despising the results of our inspiration, but instead celebrate and exploit the wonderful feeling of elevated energy and enthusiasm we experience when we feel inspired. The quickening of the senses and the heightening of imagination are, I'm sure just the same for the Matisses and Wrens and Brownings as they are for the rest of us. It's just that they can do different things with their inspired talents."

I am just so darn glad that for the first time in my life, I feel as though I have found God's purpose for my love of the 'domestic arts.' I am given the desire to be creative by a Creator who delights in my use of His good gifts.