I missed it!
This year when our extended Gebbie family gathered for Christmas, I was excited to include my only granddaughter in our gift exchange. This was the first time, at almost 3-years-old, that many family members met her. When it was time to open gifts, I started handing them to her and asked her to take it to the person named. This taught her new family names & helped her engage with everyone. It was a beautiful & fun family day! BUT… I jumped ahead too fast and totally forgot our family tradition of over 30 years to read Luke 2 before opening presents. That mistake gives me a chance to share some thoughts about part of the Christmas story. This year I discovered a new perspective about the shepherds from an advent devotional on YouVersion called “God With Us”. You may already know this, but it was a new idea for me to think of the shepherds as more than a a sign of Jesus’ love of common people over the religiosity of some leaders. The shepherds also represented how Jesus would grow to be OUR shepherd. A shepherd who watches over us, protects and provides for us. A Shepherd who works for our good, even before we are aware of His presence. There are many verses about Jesus as our shepherd in the Bible, but my favorite is Psalm 23:1, NLT version that reads: The Lord is my Shepherd. I have all that I need. In a time of hopeful “recovery” from consumerism that negatively impacts the environment, it’s important to remember that accumulating more and more things brings only momentary joy. Instead, Seek your happiness in the Lord, and He will give you your Heart’s desire. Psalm 37:4. Similar to the Shepherds pointing to Jesus’ role, the 3 Kings also speak to the path of Jesus. The 3 Kings simply slipped away from Herod without following his command to tell him the location of the newborn baby. Likewise, Jesus lived through the paradox of being rebellious with the rulers of his time while showing incredible strength to remain peaceful and non-violent. Consider the strength needed to remain in love through the unbearable pain of innocent lives, including Herod’s order to kill children under the age of two, and later His own unimaginable suffering. He gave up his power to come as a baby, and to later suffer through rejection and physical pain BECAUSE He loves us… individually. And that includes those who turn to Him as well as those who reject Him. He loves us, faults and all, before we first loved Him. Darkness cannot overcome the light of love. 
I make ornaments to share every year. This year the world seemed especially dark with environmental disasters, war in Ukraine, and extreme divisiveness and violence. I chose to make an ornament on black paper and added reflective, bright paint to be a symbol of John 1:5 (TPT) “this Living Expression is the Light that bursts through gloom— the Light that darkness could not diminish!” I love the quote written by Ann Voskamp: "So light the Advent candles. Light them, light them. And you can see it, with every lit candle, sparks of dawning. Hope catching on everything! I also discovered an inspiring video on YouVersion from Kevin Olusola of Pentatonix. His devotion is called “All Things New”. Click on the link below to watch the video (in 2 sections) of his beautiful version of the light of life.
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I had my first experience of being a scribe for 2 judges as they determined winners for each category a few days before a large quilt show. Lots of thoughts! I learned a lot watching & listening to the judges scrutinize each beautiful quilt. “The lines on the edge aren’t straight.” What? It looked fantastic to me. I learned new terms like “shadowing” (seeing darker fabric through to the top) and “bite front to back” (hand quilting all the way from the front of the quilt to back layer). In a way it made me want to do better- work with more precision. But on the other hand, the same night I came home and poured over Jude Hill’s Spirit Cloth videos, which I love! She hand sews everything- from piecing to quilting to embroidery. It’s not perfect but I find it amazingly beautiful and unique. Perfect is not necessarily unique. So going forward, I’m going to start celebrating unique and original over perfection. Diversity over sameness. Harmony and uniqueness in variety. And practice, practice, practice… progress will be revealed through the process!  From Spirit Cloth maker Jude Hill at clothwhispering.com Nature is the inspiration for my fiber art and children’s songs that will hopefully turn into children’s books. Nature is one of the ways God reveals Himself. His Word says: The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display His craftsmanship. Psalms 19:1 Every time I step out and take a walk, I find unexpected gifts that come my way through no effort of my own (my husband’s saying). Nature- bright flowers or leaves, birds, bears or the sun touching the mountain tops or shining through leaves on the trees- brings me joy. It gives me a feeling of well-being; a sense of peace. I am not a city girl. I find nature immensely more beautiful and alive than the most ornate or neon-lit, bustling city. My love of being outside probably started as a young girl when my Mom told us, “go outside and play”; or when my Dad took us on many weekend trips to the beach or decided on a whim to drive our family to the mountains for a Sunday picnic. My appreciation of nature only grows as I age. I still get surprised and excited to turn a corner and find a bright rainbow or see bears walk through my yard. I take pictures. Every. Single. Time. So, I seek to reveal a touch of nature’s beauty through fiber art and, more recently, through children’s song stories. Making- creating- is a desire that I can’t explain but that I get joy and satisfaction from doing. Ideas just pop into my head when I see the beauty in nature or spend time reflecting on the Word. My granddaughter, who turns two in two months, inspires new songs. And speaking of songs, I learned one of my favorite verses by singing a song from Isaiah 55:12 in the youth choir: You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace, the mountains and the hills will break forth before you, and all the trees of the field will clap, will clap their hands!  |
AuthorYes, my name really is Debbie Gebbie. I make fiber art that illuminates nature’s beauty. Archives
December 2022
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