The delights of Hospitality!

I have rediscovered in the past 6 months break from study the joy of having creative time. Not spare time because I rarely if ever have that but creative time. Time in which I take a break and decide to use for me and God's glory. Don't take that to mean my glory and God's - read it as me time which is for God's glory. Anyway.

A friend invited me to come paint some months ago and I got to experiment with oils for the first time - that was awesome and occasionally I take time to finish off paintings I started now.

These past couple of weeks I have had the honour of hosting a few people to dinner and been able to bless those who have really blessed me. I have really enjoyed being able to make my home inviting and being able to really cook and create from base ingredients. Expensive yes but so much fun and so relaxing.

I think I enjoy these things precisely because they take time. You cannot paint an oil painting in a 30min segment. Well I can't. Making soup from scratch can take an entire day. To do a roast well its best to cook it on a low heat for a long time.

In addition they really don't take up a lot of brain space. They do initially but then the actual process tends to be labour intensive not mind draining. Which means that I have time to think, to ponder, to brood, to hover.

In our recent church conference the idea of hovering was brought to the fore when Genesis 1 was discussed. God is a God of order and the bible says that the earth was formless. In various translations the earth is decribed as empty, a wasteland, void and the like. The speaker suggested that this would have been contrary to God's very nature - one of order and diversity and that He responded not by going into over drive but rather that the Spirit of God hovered over all this. Considered it, mused, brooded, before then slowly day by day bringing form and creation into being. He formulated a plan, He did things in logical order and He didn't rush it like a bull at a fence.

I think creating things in the right order, in a timely manner, with fore thought and insight, is a great way to connect with God! In addition to it bringing us into closer relation and understanding of Him and His ways it also gives us time to consider ourselves and our ways and how they differ. Brooding, hovering, considering, pondering, thinking, and bringing Glory to God all in 'me' time. What an awesome experience!!!