Hidden in Christ

This journal entry was prompted by a couple of online challenges I wanted to accept.  One from Splitcoast Stampers was to create the project around the theme of LIFE. And the second was to design with the color scheme of orange and lime green.  WOW....so not my colors.  But the purpose of challenges is to take you out of your style zone to try new and different things. To step up to these challenge I decided to merge them

Colossians 3:2-4 says:  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

If you let that passage settle over you like I did, God will speak to you through it.  It's powerful.  You could literally pull it apart and digest the smaller phrases and build a vivid blueprint for living!  But for the theme, LIFE, I really focused in on the phrase, "your life is now hidden with Christ in God."  What does that mean?  

As I child I played with other neighborhood children outdoors a lot, and one of our favorite games was hide and seek.  The seeker would close his/her eyes, and everyone would go find a place to hide.  It had to be a good place, one that would be hard to discover.  There was such an excitement about hiding.  What made the game so delightful was to think of the best hiding place, a place no one would think of, no one would guess.  When I was about twelve, I found the best hiding place of all.  I found Jesus!  

 

I certainly didn't think of Him as a hiding place, but as I grew and had more and more occasions to run to Him, He indeed became a often sought after hiding place.  Now, as Christians we are not to remain hidden from the world.  That's not what this verse describes.  The amazing truth of this scripture is more about where our minds and hearts are to abide.  We are to reside within the hiding place of Christ's identity.  It means having the mind of Christ--"set your minds on things above, not on earthly things."  To be constantly sheltered by the heavens is an amazing thought.  Our home is not here.  We are to constantly be focused on Christ, His presence now, and what He has prepared for us in heaven.  

The more I thought about what it meant to truly be hidden in Christ, worship began.  I thanked God for all the ways He had kept me hidden in His heart. From this time of worship another page was born.  I started thanking God for each of the ways He hid me in His love and power.  Because I am hidden in Christ, I am...(see the "bubbles"). 

 And the wonderful conclusion is, through the hiding place of Christ, I know I BELONG!  I am His, in His family.  I am His beloved child.  Adopted. Chosen.  When you ponder the words on this page and realize all that Christ gives when we hide in Him, when you really FEEL those words are true for you, description of your life, a flood of thanksgiving, praise and real worship will pour over your soul.  

Praise God I'm dead to my old self and that I have been raised in Christ to a new life, a new hope and a new future.  It's wonderful to be hidden in Christ.  I never want to come out from that hiding place!

Here's a quick rundown of how I did my page:

• I used watercolor paints to brush stripes down the page.  I like using a medium that allows the words of scripture to still be visible.   The stripes are highlighted with Tim Holtz Distress Crayons...more about those in a future post. 
• I doodled around the entire page and around the verse to highlight the focal passage.
• The words on the left and images are all stamped with Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps: His Name, Message of Hope and He is Worthy, Majestic Monarchs (some are coming soon, so this is a bit of a sneak peek).
• I stamped the flowers and butterflies, cut them out then colored with watercolor paint and the distress crayons. 
• The right page is all sponging.  I have some large, round sponges I used to achieve the bubbles (SU-Tangerine Tango and Kiwi Kiss inkpads) then I just sponged in around the circles with a smaller sponge using SU Pumpkin Pie inkpad.   
• The lettering on the right page is hand done. 

 Thanks for stopping in!  I love having you here.