"In 6 days You created the whole world, but You've been working on heaven 2,000 years!" --Keith Green

Keith Green wrote a song called 'I Can't Wait To Get To Heaven.' The heading of this post is a line from the song. It talks about how beautiful this world is and how it was created in only 6 days. How amazing is heaven going to be since Christ has been preparing it as a home since He returned after the resurrection!? 

I live in a place that catches a lot of flack, but it is so beautiful. As I was driving home yesterday I stopped at a rest area and took a photo. I love these mountains!

When I was in China I had a chance to visit the San Qing mountains. They were breathtaking (maybe that had something to do with frigid temperatures and the 1083403847203847302473087 stairs we had to climb. Twice. But part of it was the beauty we saw too.)!

It's funny. Going to China made me both more patriotic, or at least proud of my state, and less attached to my country. It's a big world. People are people wherever you go and God loves them all like crazy. He made all countries, not just America. And though I love where I live, I wouldn't dare say it is better than any other place that God made or that being American is better than any other nationality. But living in Jingdezhen and visiting the mountains made me more appreciative of where I live and the people I love. Because although Jingdezhen is a special town, and although the mountains I saw in China were far more grand than the ones I live in, the ones back home are...well, home.

And seeing how beautiful my world is I do appreciate the words in Keith Green's song because they make me stop and wonder what God is building up in heaven. If this world is so amazing and so gorgeous, then I can't even imagine what we will see there.

Visiting

 Niece, Olive.

 Nephew, Silas.

Younger sister, Holly.

This past weekend I got to visit with my older sister, brother-in-law and my niece and nephew. Those kids become more delightful each time I see them. It was good to get out of town and see family. 

My younger sister ended up being able to come visit me for a week. So I got to see lots of family this week! Yay! I wish she could stay with me more!

Flowers

I love these colors together.

I love this song!

 对面的女孩看过来

My classmates and I all had to sing (and dance to) this song during the Chinese New Year. I was not a fan at first, but now it holds a lot of sweet memories and I kind of love it.

Lately I am missing Chinese language class a lot! I really wish I could continue studying the language, but I really need to graduate at some point and that would set me back a bit. I am very grateful for the experience though. It was one of the best classes I have ever taken, if not THE best.

Happy Independence day!

Missing the studio.

 Lately I am wishing so much to throw on a dress, run to the studio, sit at a wheel and make pots. And drink tea. I've tried some hand building here at home and it is difficult! As tiring and stressful as the studio can sometimes be, it is so easy to be there. I love it. I love being able to go there and work. It is nice to wear a little clay each day. It gets everywhere (which is why it is hard to work with it in my apartment). I drink a lot of tea at the studio. I rarely take the time to make tea at home. I should though. It's comforting to drink tea.

I made a new book. I liked it. I gave it away without photographing it. You'll have to take my word for it that it was cute. I've cut pages for two new ones and I bought some new glue that will hopefully be better than what I have been using. I also bought some leather scraps to try to use in place of book cloth. It should be fun to experiment with.

I am caught in such a funky rut these days. I'm trying to remember God's truth and be grateful, but it is still a struggle sometimes. It makes me want to spend every day by myself making books in bed while listening to Adele, which is not only impractical but unhealthy as well. Despite my anti-social feelings of late I have had the opportunity this weekend to visit with several friends, old and new, which was so fun and encouraging. Life is so good and so blessed.

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You  must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at this feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

--C. S. Lewis