What behind your Sofa?

 

I don't know about you but my sofas over the years has been known to hide things like a stain on the wall or the carpet. My sofas have found new purposes, uses for which they are not intended like becoming reservoirs for our loose change, biscuit wrappers and worse... In Buffalo USA , in 2010 a family found that an old painting tucked behind their couch was worth an estimated $300 million dollars. The painting a Michelangelo, belonged to the Kober family who had put it behind their sofa after it had been knocked off the wall with a tennis ball some 27yrs before isn't that a hoot! 

On first finding it they thought it was probably a copy and weren't too bothered. But then the Dad of the family retired and as a new hobby started to trace the family tree. It was while tracing through the family history retired Lt. Col. Kober realised it might be an actual unfinished work. The painting ‘The Lost Pieta’ which was authenticated by art historian Anthony Forcellino is now in a bank vault.

How often we overlook the true value of something because it’s familiar or out of sight. This painting is still out of sight in a bank vault somewhere but its value has been realised and changed the lives of the Kober family forever. We all have less obvious things in our lives that perhaps we need to look at with a fresh sense of appreciation. Just for fun why not go run your hand under the cushions of you sofa - let me know what you find!

Hugs Ruth x

Enjoy the Moment

Isn't technology brill? My daughter has an 'i' phone and she plays this game where she takes a kind of photographic commentary on her life and swaps it with her friends who do the same back to her. Yesterday's one was of my husband asleep on the sofa while I painted my toenails. She caught us in a moment of down time, family chill time bless her; enjoying it so much she just had to share it with the world ~ pesky kids! The adjacent photo is my beautiful sister in law and my brother in one such moment. I'm finding moments are precious...

As a family we're walking through terminal illness. There is a sense in which this urgent vulnerability heightens the moments - giving a shaper focus a more vivid colour. When limits are set into our world, only then do we really appreciate what we have. Try going without food for a few days to have a bowl of soup set before you, boy... do you enjoy that soup! The very limitations in which we find ourselves can give us an appetite for greater things and enhance the ordinary. No matter how sad or bad things are we always have so much to thank God for. It's been a process but I can honestly say I praise God for each and every limit He has placed on my life; for I can look back and really KNOW He was in each moment with me.

I'm trying to develop the art of stopping just to drink in the goodness of Christ and I paddle along. Can I encourage you to stop what you're doing, take 5 and breathe?

• Praise God for that breath
• Praise Him for the senses you have
• for joy of movement
• for friends and family   
• and for soup!
• 
  

Hugs Ruth x

But Lord it takes so Long..!

We live an hour from Cambridge so one of the cheap and cheer filled things I love to do in the summer is pack a picnic, hire a punt and mess about on the river Cam... it's especially good when it's not raining! The above picture is one taken from said punt a couple of years ago; when on that occasion we had a student do all the donkey work. As he pushed us along he regaled some historical juicy info about the people and buildings of years gone by. He told us each building took so long to build that literally generations of men from the one family would be employed, each father passing on his skill or craft to his son and so on. If walls could talk and that - three even four generations of people investing their time, energy, skill and hard work into a project that they would possibly never get to see in completion. 

I've been thinking about the stuff God builds, you know important stuff like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control (Gal 5:21).You know what I mean? The really important stuff that takes much investment, it's hard going and Lord it seems to take so long!!! My Dad used to say 'if a job is worth doing it's worth doing well', folks God builds in a most excellent way. He uses big solid life foundational stones of forgiveness, perseverance, single mindedness, courage and more... He won't cut corners or a do a cosmetic fix - I'm glad that what He builds is built to last for eternity. He is detailed and works with precision where He needs to and brings form from formlessness. Next time you feel exasperated with the process of being changed from glory to glory remember this -your spirit the eternal bit on the inside of who you are, is being built to last - forever!

Big squeezy Hugs this week!

Ruth x

Lord HELP I've a pickle in need of removal!

I've been feeling pretty good about life recently... Yep seeing growth, feelin useful, kinda Zippy Do Da - ing with the Lord through life and if I'm honest thinking yeah I'm not where I used to be with that issue... It's easy to be miss growth in your own character and totally fantastic when you catch yourself being all grown up and acting with maturity where you once would have had a complete melt down. Yeay me? Well I'm studying the book of James at the moment (see link below)
 http://www.lifeway.com/James:-Mercy-Triumphs
It has always been one of my favourite books I like his directness and his cry to get on and be the love of Christ. I enjoy his challenge to partner with the Holy Spirit and embrace the work of continual God glorifying change through our relationship with Jesus. I have to confess to feelin a little smug at one point because the study was dealing with a particular subject I felt I had nailed, ha ha...! While I was patting myself on the back and doing a little dance the Lord with humour and love showed me a different issue which was holding me back - don't you love it how God keeps our feet on the floor!! He lead me to Matthew 7:1-5 and showed me how I can make quick fire assumptions about others and how assumptions are related to judgements. OUCH...! Guys God is so gracious He is for us, He loves it when we want to grow and He points things out so we can walk in victory and not be held back by the junk in our trunk. So this week and maybe even longer the Lords helping me remove a pickle - so I can walk more freely!

• I'm sure it's not just me, ask the Holy Spirit if there's a pickle pertinent to you and for His help to remove it?

Love being real with you ...

Hugs Ruth x