Story Rope, Marcia Carole
As I slip into the morning from a great night of sleep, I check to see how my cancer is. I do this ritual every morning while the birds, at my feeder, sing outside my window. I wonder if there will ever be a day when I don’t need to check. The idea of moving from stage 4 to stage 3 sounds so joyful, I decide not to keep the thought in my mind for long. I do have hope, but I have been sobered a couple of times when the words “re-staging” and “new stage” have been considered.
Then, I remember I am teaching two international workers how to make story ropes. That quickly brightens my day. I hope to pass on some ways to share one’s story, so they can bring it back to Thailand and beyond. I am making a quick, simplified version of my first story rope, because I think sharing the essence of one’s story is better. Too many details slow the listener down, and what is most important may get lost in the process.
I’ll try to post the simpler version after I make it. I have to find my ribbons and then process my story on the one long strip shown above. I have a rainbow colored piece of fabric as my base to remind myself that God is faithful, and His promises are certain. Just like God promised Noah and his family NO more destruction, with a rainbow, I know His promises for eternal life, victory over sin and death, healing, worth and value, forgiveness, adoption, redemption are all certain in Jesus. If I never get to stage 3 cancer, I am at peace in Jesus knowing I am no longer living under God’s condemnation or “destruction.”
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. Romans 8:1,2
The simplified story rope I will share today.
