Beauty and Bands: Finding Beauty Among the Ashes

By Henrietta Wisbey

The poems and corresponding texts reflect my story. Thoughts and prayers gathered form gleaning behind the reapers.

Listening and seeking to respond to the Divine promptings and guidance have led me to discover, on the one hand the sovereign workings of God's mysterious ways and my human responsibility on the other.

Beauty and Bands were broken, how and why?

My quest; I needed to find a shepherd.

He was there.

Himself broke and wounded for me.

My life has been transformed. Beauty continues to be restored because of the Bond He made.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson
• Release date: Nov 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9781400325948

Henrietta Wisbey

I walked through the shop----the sense of desolation was palpable--- What would become of us?   What can sustain us through the crippling loss, of home, family, business? The cakes I held in my hand crashed against the wall. Desperation had taken over.   Despair, loss, homelessness, upheaval, removal all loomed on the horizon. Failure beckoned. An uncharted way lay ahead.   Only one thing could be heard, a call, "Be still and know that I am God."   I was there! My business has changed.

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Shavuot

Shavuot is one of the three annual pilgrimage festivals, which marked the culmination of the harvest. It followed exactly seven weeks after the feast of unleavened bread, which follows Passover, and was distinguished by the presentation or waving of a sheaf offering— the first fruit of the barley harvest. The instructions are detailed in Lev. 23:10–14. After this ceremony, it was lawful for the reaping to begin. God had the first honor. It was a beautiful act to express our dependence and thanks to God. The first sheaf of the ripening grain is identified and selected. A reed or ribbon is tied around the sheaf and waved before the Lord as the first fruit of the barley harvest. The reaper’s sickle had cut the sheaf and the reaping could begin.

This wave offering was the forerunner of an additional offering brought later Shavuot/the Feast of Pentecost when two loaves of bread baked with leaven, the first fruits to the Lord were offered (Lev. 23:16,17). This first fruit offering is known as bikkurim.

Do we see here a forerunner of the offering given by God viz? The Lord Jesus Christ and the presentation of both Jew and Gentile?

Can we see Ruth and Naomi as symbolic of the two loaves presented at the Temple on Shavuot?

Ruth had taken the yoke of Torah and had entered into that covenant.

Ruth and Naomi connect us with the complete plan of salvation, redemption, restoration, wholeness.

Psalm 113

Here is a Psalm that captivated me this morning and, as I explored its significance, I became convinced that it perfectly encapsulated the twin themes of my book, Beauty and Bands.

This Psalm holds beautiful flashes of light and inspiration, and yet contains deep revealing truths. Essentially, I want to reach those who cry, who feel bereft and hopeless. This Psalm is about that: God has raised the poor from the dung hill and you can’t get much lower! Psalm 113 is the first in a series of Hallel Psalms, which would be sung at Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles.

Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest, which took place immediately after Passover. The Feast of Tabernacles celebrated the ingathering of the harvest.

My God Is King

What was happening in Israel?

What was happening in the time of the judges?

What was happening in Bethlehem Ephrath?

What was coming to pass?

Where was the rule of law?

There was a famine, and there was a certain man.

His name was Elimelech, meaning my God is king.

He went from the place of bread meaning Bethlehem to sojourn in the land of Moab.

Not once upon a time but in the days of the judges.

There was no king in Israel.

Let me tell you who I have met, I interrupted. I have met the King.

Someone I once met spent rather a long time, seeking to impress me, telling me all about the important and influential people he had met. Quite a long list, but it had not included a king!

The Lord is King for ever and ever. Ps.10:16 KJV. There is a midrash* that says these are the first words spoken by Adam when he opened his eyes.

My thoughts this morning began on similar lines. The day my eyes opened, I saw beauty, truth, colour, life I had not seen before. A new birth, a beginning, a new creation seeing from another perspective, another angle. God had breathed the breath of life and I was being remade in the image of Him who created me, renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created me. The grandest theme, the holiest song. The Lord is King for ever and ever.

When I first encountered the story of Ruth, the name Elimelech (God is King) caught my attention. For me it was the key. Keys are used to unlock and—although the path and the story seemed long and winding, sometimes leading away from and returning to—yet, God is King. He is before all things. As King, true to His word—the two cannot be