Scene of the Crime

The other day I went to Big Lots and got some Christmas scrapbook paper and other Christmas themed scrapbook stuff. I got a special cutter so I am able to cut STRAIGHT lines for my latest project - I need pieces of 12x12 paper cut to 8.5x11. Finally, I'm beginning work on the scrapbook I'm making of the trip to Manhattan my parents and I went on this past December! It was beautiful - it snowed, and the trees, lights and store windows were beautifully decorated. I had about 70 photos to be printed and didn't want to use all that ink on my own printer (although I do have one that is good enough for photos). I looked around for printing prices. I thought it was going to be Sam's Club (they have great deals on blown up prints), but - surprise - for the 4x6's I went with an online company called ArtsCow. You get a certain amount of photos printed for free and only pay shipping, so the price was really great. Here's the scene of the crime; the living room where I've spread everything out:

I've also signed up to participate in a Rolodex card swap through the yahoo papercrafts group called Faith Based Pages. Six people signed up for the swap so I have to send 5 of my Rolodex cards to a woman who will make sets of all our cards and send them back to us. I haven't done this Rolodex card swap thing before, so hopefully I did it correctly. If not, I'll know better next time! The theme is "God will provide for us."

I chose to illustrate the verse Jonah 4:6, which says "Then the Lord God provided a vine and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was very happy about the vine." I like this verse because it shows God providing for our physical needs - Jonah was going to sleep and needed some shade or he'd get seriously sunburned, since he was in a desert. Jonah could have gotten too dehydrated to go on, so God just grew a vine, right then and there! And we worry so much about material things...don't forget, though, that Jonah was doing work for God. He wasn't just sitting around, waiting for God to lay things in his lap. If we're following Christ, God is going to be there for us. Another thing to remember when you think about God's provision: God doesn't always give us what we want, but He does gives us what we need. And I might think I really need something to survive, but if God doesn't think the same thing, He might not give it to me. And I have to accept His will and that He is right - not lil' ol' me, the human.