Sunday, March 24, 2013

Happy Holy Week




Dear friends,

 Today is Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week.  I have written a lot of articles in recent years, many filled with art, music, and poetry.  You can find an updated list them on my Easter links page, but here is what I have so far.

 May God fill you with joy, hope, peace, grace, and most of all love this season,

 Virginia Knowles
www.VirginiaKnowles.blogspot.com




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Friday, March 22, 2013

Springtime in My Front Hallway

Dear friends,

It's springtime!

Many years ago, my Aunt Nancy kindly gave our family a porcelain bunny village which we set out nearly every year.  My favorite piece is the church, of course!


This year, the bunny village has a place of honor on the tall cabinet in our front hallway.


We often receive hand-me-down clothes from friends and neighbors, and we always try to pass along what we can't use.  But I got tired of seeing plastic bags of clothes to be given away just plopped down in the hallway.  I bought a brown fabric hamper (with a sturdy wire frame) at Walmart, covered it with a right-sized board, added a vintage lace cloth, and topped it with a silk rose bouquet.  Decorative and useful at the same time!  

On the low table in the hallway, I put a bowl of lemons on a vintage lace doily.  They're actually plastic, but you can't tell that by looking at them.  I bought the whole bag of them for $1.49 at Salvation Army.  I'm still missing a few of them since my grandsons got a hold of them!



 I just moved this plaque from the bathroom today.  I have been tweaking our bathrooms lately, as you can see here: 

Decorating and Organizing Bathroom Areas on a Budget

This framed print is next to our door, an appropriate place since it reads: "Lord, rest your hand upon this door and bless this house forevermore."


 That's all for my front hallway today, but you can see previous posts featuring it here: 

Grace and peace,

Virginia Knowles



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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

"At the Cross" by Living Waters A Capella from Yale



Dear friends,

 On Sunday morning, the Living Waters a Capella (voices only) singing group from Yale University blessed our little church with two songs during our worship service.  Then on Monday night, they serenaded the ladies' Bible study with two more!  (One of the leaders of the singing group is the daughter of the lady who was teaching the study.) I'm really glad I went to the study, my first time.  I'll write more about it later in the post, but first wanted to share this one music video of them singing "At the Cross" which made me cry.  The soloist, Esther, is from the Sudan but spent most of her life in Kenya.  Both places have been in turmoil in recent years, so the words she sings are all the more poignant.  She is a political science major at Yale.  


"At the Cross" (Chorus)
by Hillsong

Oh Lord You've searched me
You know my way
Even when I fail You
I know You love me

Your holy presence
Surrounding me
In every season
I know You love me
I know You love me

At the cross I bow my knee
Where Your blood was shed for me
There's no greater love than this
You have overcome the grave
Your glory fills the highest place
What can separate me now?

You go before me
You shield my way
Your hand upholds me
I know You love me

You tore the veil
You made a way
When You said that it is done 

The other thing that blessed me about the study is that they were watching a video from Lysa TerKeurst's series Unglued: Making Wise Choices in the Midst of Raw Emotions.  I absolutely love how she used the beauty of art and music to "set the table" for her lesson on how God shapes us into who he wants us to be: she taught much of the lesson from in front of Michelangelo's David sculpture in Florence, Italy.  What do I mean by "set the table"?  I guess you'll have to head over to my post "Bella Sophia" (Lady Wisdom Sets the Table)!

 I love the concept that God is the passionate artist who is working on us bit by bit to transform us into his perfect vision for us.  We are his masterpieces, and he is very patient with us.

 “In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”  Michelangelo

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”  Michelangelo

Grace,
Virginia Knowles
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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Still Blooming on a Chilly Morning



"Consider how the wild flowers grow. 



They do not labor or spin. 



Yet I tell you not even Solomon 


 in all his splendor 


was dressed like one of these."


Luke 12:27



All blooming in my yard
on a chilly March morning in Florida:
Indian hawthorn, camellia, violas, 
petunias, pansies, star jasmine, 
and mums that resurrected 
from dry stubs 
with a little patience.
I'm amazed that I still found 
two camellias on the bush,
and I'm awaiting the magnolias. 


"I must try and cultivate an eye for life's mercies...
And life, while it has its ugly swamps, 
its vile weeds, and its sharp thorns,
has always its fair flowers 
to charm the eye with their beauty, 
or to fill the air with their fragrance..."

Rev. John Flowers Serjeant, 1878


as quoted on Pollywog Creek




Other flower posts for you...

Longwood Gardens

Consider the Camellias

All flower posts on this blog 

This post will be linked at: 

P52 Sweet Shot Tuesday with Kent Weakley 



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