Sunday Meditation: I John 4:19-21

If you are just here for the quilting and are offended by Christian posts, you might want to skip this and scroll right by. Otherwise, I hope you will enjoy thinking about 1 John 4:19-21.

¹⁹We love because he first loved us. ²⁰If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has never seen. ²¹And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
                                                                          I John 4:19-21

A couple of points from my notes on this passage. First, we know how to love because God first loved us. He is the source of love and also the example of how we are to love. God loves each of us even though we are all sinners. It is not for us to judge each other, only to love each other.

Second, the world measures us, as Christians, by the way we love others. The proof is in the doing, not in empty talk, not in attending church, or not in reading the Bible. These mean nothing if we are not actively practicing philia (brotherly) love.

By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
                                                                          John 13:35

With everything that 2020 brought to the world, to this country and to me personally, I found myself in the Bible more than any other time in my life. For one thing, I’ve had much more time on my hands for reading and study. Yesterday during my quiet time, I thought about a couple of things. First, I had just written the book review of The Book of Longings and was thinking about women in biblical times. Then, the “Women of the Bible” block of the week I started years ago came to mind.

This block series is by Stitchin’ Tree and is still available. You can get it on a CD here or as a PDF digital download here. My original project was pretty quickly abandoned because of the size of the blocks, 15″ and 10″ and also the size of the quilt. It finishes 110″ x 125″. This is too large to donate and I am out of room quilts this big. I just couldn’t get excited about my original plan with this quilt. Here is my first block.

It is a nice block, just not very inspiring. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make the quilt, but with six-inch blocks. Every week I will make two blocks from each pattern for a total of 80 blocks. I have a setting in mind from the Moda Blockheads book. The setting I want to do has about a million flying geese so I will also have to piece some of those as I go along.

These first blocks represent Eve and Rachel. I’m making each of the two blocks slightly different and using brighter colors. What I like about this series is that in addition to the 40 block patterns, there is information about each of the women represented and also a page for your own study or thoughts. It is a nice way to reflect and meditate as you stitch the blocks.