This week it was Kimberly's turn to set the challenge and she chose 'walking in love.' You can read her comments on the SALT blog.As I considered the challenge, my thoughts went to the greatest commandments, shown on my ATC above, which is to love God with all our heart, mind, and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
On our own, it would be impossible to complete such a task for we are all far too self-centered, thinking more about ourselves, our own ideas and feelings than those of others. We fail to obey God's simplest commands and are prone to react selfishly when called upon to express love for God and love for our neighbor. Love is more than a feeling, it is going above and beyond what you may inwardly "feel" and giving, in a sacrificial way, seeking to glorify God and not bringing glory to yourself. It's to strive to meet the needs of others more than the needs of yourself and to love God more than anything or anyone. It is only through Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit that we can even imagine being able to demonstrate this level of love. Through Christ we can have a hope that our selfish hearts will be changed into hearts full of love and compassion that are eager and willing to wait upon those in need and to love God as we ought.
I thought of this ATC as sort of a bulletin, calling the reader to pay attention to the "important message" displayed next to the flower. The scripture verse referenced is from Matthew and was Jesus' response to a lawyer, who was testing him, and asked him which commandment was the greatest. The center of the flower was created from a circle stamp that reads "genuine article", a reference to the Bible. The word background is the definition of love, a stamp from Stampin' Up! Three silver brads hold my torn patterned paper onto the card base.
Feeling inspired to create a "walking in love" project? Hop on over to the SALT blog to see all of the other beautiful creations made by our talented design team. Leave a comment and a link back to your blog or gallery. We'd love to share with you!!
Enjoy and go show some love to God and your neighbors! :-)
Wow, I really like what you've done here. It really is an "important message!"
ReplyDeleteI love the way you've used the flower petals to accentuate the importance of the message - a truly beautiful piece of artwork and so powerfully meaningful.
ReplyDeleteA lovely piece of work to remind you of that wonderful verse.
ReplyDeletelove the wording and translucency, greta textures and work!
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