Stampin' Sisters in Christ challenge 150...torn

Happy Sunday stampers! It is time for another challenge from Stampin' Sisters in Christ, where all of our challenges are based on scripture. Our sponsor this week is Inspired Stamps and I have used a sentiment from one of their lovely sets on my card. We spend a lot of time at the baech as we are five miles form the coast where I live, so I used another image from our sponsor last week at A Day for Daisies. You can find out more information about our sponsors on our blog, and see the rest of the creations from the design team right here. 


I am the hostess this week and I selected the challenge to use torn paper on your creation, and this verse from Matthew Matthew 27:51 "The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." adn the thoughts I have to share are as follows:

I have been thinking about all the different shades of meaning that word ‘tear’ or ‘torn’ can have in our lives.

On the one hand, it can be celebratory—how many of you have seen a young child, filled with excitement, tearing open the wrapping paper on a Christmas or birthday present?

We can use it to express difficulty, such as I ‘tore’ myself away from my favorite book to clean house instead.

The word tear often can be sad as well. Syria is torn apart by civil war. The tragic events in Colorado tore apart families, friendships and lives. We tear down relationships when we fling out unkind words or actions, are selfish or hasty. I took my daughter to see the movie Brave recently and in one scene the princess angrily tears a family tapestry her mother was stitching. In a moment, the painstaking work of years was destroyed by a single action.

The bible tells us of a different moment when with a single action, hope was born and lives restored, symbolized by a significant tearing.

Matthew 27:51 "The veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom."

This happened to the curtain or veil in the temple in Jerusalem when Jesus died on the cross; the veil was torn in two from top to bottom.

This curtain had significance beyond decorative; it separated the Israelites from the Holy of Holies in the temple, the place where God’s essence dwelt on earth. Once per year the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies and offer an atoning sacrifice to the Lord on behalf of all the people. They would tie a rope to one leg to pull him out in case he was struck dead while performing this atonement. No one else was allowed to enter the presence of God. And the temple curtain or veil, according to historian Josephus, was 40 cubits high or almost 60 feet tall.

When Jesus willingly gave himself up as an atoning sacrifice on the cross, and took the weight of the sin of the world on his shoulders, he opened the way for anyone, Jew or Gentile, to enter into a relationship with God. He tore the veil in two—sin separates us from God no longer, as long as we accept that sacrifice.

Just to be clear, Jesus didn’t die on the cross, tear the curtain and end the story.  Jesus is alive today, still extending that invitation to step through the torn curtain and enter eternal life with Him.

John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No man comes to the Father except through me.” The veil was torn and hope was born on that day. Lives are restored and made new each and every time a person accepts Jesus as their Lord and savior and accepts the sacrifice that changed the world, visually illustrated by the most significant tearing the world has ever experienced. Jesus is the way, have you accepted that in your life?

Thanks for looking and we hope you can find time to participate in our challenge this week!

Stamps: image from A Day for Daisies, sentiment from Inspired stamps

Paper: Kraft, speckled off white, bits of DP

Ink: black

Other: clip, ribbon, SU watercolor crayons, glitter