A couple of years ago I gave myself permission to call myself an artist. I’ve been dabbling here and there in all kinds of art forms. My recent passion is a strange thing called “Junk Journalling”. Many of my friends have received the fruits of my labors, whether or not they wanted or appreciated them. I decided when I began to explore this particular art form that it would have a purpose, not just spending time cutting and pasting paper. My goal with this art form primarily is to uplift people and share the wonderfulness of God’s love and provision for us. And then, of course, I get to create, cut, and paste pretty paper into books.
I started by going to yard sales and thrift stores to find supplies. Let me tell you, there’s plenty of inventory. I went to an estate sale of a gentleman who had been a preacher and a teacher in a theological institution. I struck gold! Finding a supply of old books, quotes, pretty papers and other supplies has been a real treat. Even various kinds of scissors, hole punches, clean journals, stamps and other supplies can be thrifted. I’ve chosen not to buy supplies from online sources, but to scavenge from “junk” I find. That's part of the adventure.
At the library’s book sale I found an old book on quilting, with pictures of various quilt blocks and how to make them. Yesterday I was crafting a journal and had put in a page from the quilting book as a background. When I took a moment to look at the writing, I found an amazing few words.
“He went out and bought an armload of remnants in various shades.” That one ran right down the path of my mind into a blog.
In the Bible, the term remnant refers to a small group of people who remain faithful to God despite widespread apostasy or catastrophe. This concept appears frequently throughout both the Old and New Testaments. To reference a few: Isaiah 10:20-22, 11:11-16; Jeremiah 39:40; Romans 9:27-28; and Revelation12:17.
The remnant group description often symbolizes God’s mercy and grace, preserving a faithful group even in times of judgment.
Revelation 12:17 reads: And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. If you study prophecy in the Bible, you come to learn that the dragon is Satan, the woman is a church, and her seed is Christ’s body, His church. A woman in prophecy signifies a church or belief system. There’s a pure woman, and there’s an impure woman, a harlot.
There is quite a lot of room here for scholars to make various interpretations. And I am not qualified or bold enough to precisely explain this. But I believe that this particular text is saying that Satan is making war on Christ’s people, His body of remnants. Statistics and current events tend to indicate that world-wide there may only be a small remnant of that body right up at the end of the world. I’ll leave it up to you for further interpretation and personal study of the last days and the Bible prophecies about that time period.
However, in going back to the line I found in the scrap of an old book page, it made me gnaw deeper.
He (Jesus) went out and bought an armload of remnants (anyone who follows Him) in various shades. He spread out his arms and filled them with people of all shades - every nation, tribe and tongue and people. “After this I looked, and behold a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.” Revelation 7:9 NLT Verse nine comes right after verse eight of course, where John is discussing the 144,000, counting and describing the tribes of Israel. See it? There’s more than just them in front of the throne. There are various shades of remnants!
Shades in this case also reminded me that as humans we are all different, with varying personalities, histories and unique characteristics. There’s room in His armload for anyone, and I mean ANYONE, to be a remnant. He bought us, every one of us. He gathered us, seeing our differences, knowing He might be buying used and damaged goods. And yet, He did it anyway.
Are you a remnant in a various shade? Are you just a bit different than your friends or family in some way? Are there patterns you don’t fit into like a glove? Do you have a deeper interest in spiritual matters than other people in your circle? Do you grab a God sent concept, spiritual or secular, and gnaw on it until you’ve gotten as much juice out of it as possible? Be glad of it!
A couple of years ago a friend of mine sent me a birthday card with the words she had written: you are one of the deepest introspectors I have ever known.”. I thought, well, what does she mean by that? I’m embarrassed to admit I had to look up what an introspector is. It doesn't really appear as a word, but following her lead, I'm making it one.
Introspector: An introspective person is someone who spends time examining their own thoughts, feelings and ideas, the informal process of exploring one’s own mental and emotional states, aka a soul searcher.
Yes, the ideas, concepts and words that come into my databank affect me deeply and I spend a lot of time looking closely at them.
All of a sudden, a whole new explanation of who I am and what God has done in my life opened up to me. So – that’s what’s “been wrong” with me all of my life. My various shade is that I am a deep introspector, and a highly sensitive person. You might be surprised to learn there is a group of people labeled “highly sensitive”. They have websites and Facebook pages and all kinds of testimonies about standing on the outside of their lives watching others interact.
There are many groups and places I just don’t enjoy or fit. But I’m doing just fine about that. God never tells us to impress people, only to love them. In many of the cases in my life, loving certain people causes God extra work in my heart. But I remain willing to allow Him access.
I pray regularly to ask God to change me so that I will fit the “remnant” definition, faithful to Him to the end. I don’t think I’m that far yet, but at least there’s hope. I can be me, gnawing on an information bone, not fitting in with the crowd, my sensitive nature seeing things others do not – and -loving the Lord with as much energy as He can inject into my damaged heart. Grace comes from Him to love others. And loving others means sharing the good news about who God is.
God created you as a unique individual. There is no one else like you in the universe. In Christ, you are loved for whoever that may be. Run with it. Hey, even run with scissors if you have to. But run to Him.
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