University of Maryland Afghan

I've been making slow progress on Doug's afghan. It's based on a fibonacci sequence, and in UMCP colors -- appropriate for my soon-to-be-Terp geek son!

For those of you, like me, who are math impaired: 4+4=8, 4+8=12, 8+12=20, 12+20=32, and 20+32=52. If you were to count the number of garter stitch ridges from top to bottom, and stitches from right to left, you'd see that the afghan makes a fibonacci cube. The 3D effect is created by using white yarn for the front face of the cube, light gray for the bottom face, and dark gray for the left face.

Doug made his commitment to MD this week. We toured the campus last week (impressive!) and stocked up on spirit wear! Carrie is happy that she'll be able to drive down and have dinner with him occasionally, and if he comes home to do laundry he can take Amy out for breakfast. We're all glad he'll be close to home!

The afghan pattern came from Woolly Thoughts, which has tons of math-based knitting patterns.  Here's Fibo-Optic:  http://www.woollythoughts.com/afghans/optic.html

Three parables

Comments welcome.


Parable 1.

A mother gave birth to twins, Harold and Howard. She decided that she loved Harold and hated Howard.

To Harold she gave everything that he needed for a happy, healthy, well adjusted life: good food, affection, an education, praise when he did well, encouragement to do better when he needed it.

Howard, on the other hand, was put in a cage in the basement. He was only given enough food to survive. She whipped him regularly, verbally abused him, and made sure that the temperature in his prison was always either burning hot or freezing cold. In other words, she made his life a living hell.

Was she a loving mother? Did she deserve the love and praise that Harold gave her? Did she deserve the "mother of the year" award from her town? After all, she did a WONDERFUL job with one son.

Parable 2.

One hundred people were on a boat that exploded and capsized. They ended up in the water, swimming amongst burning debris. There was nothing to hang on to, and shore was miles away. Suddenly a boat appeared. It was obviously huge. The captain called out, "I am a loving man, so I have come to your rescue. I have room on my boat for 1000 people. But I choose to rescue only 5. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I pick you, and you, and you, and you, and you. The rest of you are on your own."

Could the same Jesus who said, "Let the little children come to me", really send little children who haven't heard the gospel (and haven't been given a choice) to ETERNAL punishment?


Parable #3 (or, "I'm just not getting this Romans 9
stuff...and believe me, I'm not taking it lightly")

Susie and Sally were identical twins who did everything together. They loved each other dearly and were virtually inseperable. When one did a good deed, the other was right with her. When one got in trouble, the other was there, too. One day Susie and Sally were sitting in their living room flipping through the TV channels, when a TV evangelist came on the screen. Something he said touched Susie's heart, and she was "saved" then and there. Seconds later, an earthquake struck, and Susie and Sally were both killed instantly. As they sat before the judgment seat, the Judge said, "Susie, you're saved. You're headed for an eternity of joy. Sally, sorry to say, you're not among the elect. Off to eternal punishment for you."

As Susie headed off with the rest of the eternally blissful, she called over her shoulder, "Goodbye, Sally. Now I see that the entire purpose of your existence was to show me the riches of his glory."

"God laid it on my heart"? "A personal relationship with Jesus"?

I'm looking for thoughts (positive and negative) about the concept of a "personal relationship with Jesus/God."   

If you've experienced this, what does it "look" like?  Feel like?  What takes place in this relationship?  How did it come about?

Do you say things like, 

• "The Lord laid it on my heart to...", or 
  
• "God impressed on me that...", or 
  
• "God has convicted me about...", or
  
•  "The Lord spoke to me and said..."?  
  

How did that happen?  How did you know it was God speaking to you?  What was the topic? What did you learn?   Were you looking for/praying for guidance on that issue? 

Have you ever met anyone who felt led/convicted in a different direction?  How did you (or did you) reconcile that with how you personally were led?

Feel free to make a comment here, or e-mail me at bqdell@gmail.com.  And send your friends!

Oh, and this is for my personal edification, not for any kind of story research.  If I ever do decide to do anything with any of these comments I'll be sure to contact you before I quote you.