Random Jewels
To start off, let me give you a little history. Almost ten years ago, I started a blog called “Random Jewels,” and it really was random. It was observations from me (Juliette, aka “Jewels”) about life both deep and trivial. You could expect a post either twice a week, or once every five months. I wrote off and on until my son turned three, and then the posts just stopped. It probably had to do with the fact that I was expecting a second child and moving to Hawaii at the same time. And it has now been five years (and a third child later) since my last post. So I am starting fresh!
Why now you ask? Because I truly am random and have decided that this is the time. In addition, I have recently had a few articles published on the Mockingbird blog (mbird.com), thanks to my husband encouraging me to submit something, me getting over my fear of failure, and of course the wonderful people over at Mockingbird who thought I had something valuable to share. And now I am feeling led to share more of my writing with others. I hope someone finds it entertaining, encouraging, or enlightening.
The picture I chose for the homepage of Jesus sitting on a Mickey Mouse folding chair was captured by my mom while we were on our family camping trip this past summer. Jesus was stolen (with permission) from a pastor’s office (it’s a long story) and has now become my daughter’s main comfort object in addition to her blankie. It has made for some pretty hilarious statements. “Where’s Jesus?! Etta needs him!” “Oh no, Jesus fell down,” “No, Jesus can’t come into the restaurant with us, he might get messy.” The irony and humor of these statements goes on and on. But the reason I am using a picture of this Jesus on a Mickey Mouse chair is that it is essentially what this blog is about. It’s Jesus being in the least expected places. It’s the commonplace turned divine. It’s the “random jewels” that are all around us that we regularly miss. It’s the gospel permeating life. Because this is our Father’s world no matter where we go and no matter how far away we feel from him. I pray that these random posts will open our eyes to what He is doing all around us, because what seems random to us is God’s grand design.