My mom's family is really big. She is the eldest of six girls, who each have families of their own. So when we get together for Christmas, it is a big affair. In fact, if you want to get a small taste of it, rent Dan in Real Life. It amazed me how similar the movie family was to my own. Anyway, that's getting off track. Buying gifts for each member of the gang would be ridiculous, so we draw names. And over the years the gift exchange has become a huge fanfair of incredible hand-made gifts.
A couple years ago I decided to make a quilt as my gift for my cousin, Ashley. It was a huge project, and the hand-quilting took many hours of quiet, tedious stitching. And I found myself spending much of that time thinking about the recipient of the gift. She was at the doorstep of some significant life-changes, and there was a chance that this quilt would see her through some of those. The end of high-school, her big sister's wedding, entering adulthood. And I started to pray for her during the process of finishing the quilt. Not out loud, but silent, unspoken prayers that God would see her through these changes. The repetitive task of the quilting freed my mind to consider all the areas of her life that might need prayer.
I love the idea of using arts and crafts to initiate or sustain a prolonged prayer time, and apparently I'm not alone. I just read a new book, Praying in Color, by Sybil MacBeth.
The basic idea is that when you have a burden for someone, or even a whole list of people, you write their names on a sheet of paper, and spend time embellishing the page while meditating over them in prayer. I LOVE this idea. In the book she makes some incredible observation about roadblocks and distractions that we often encounter during prayer. The book as a whole is very inspiring and insightful, and I would recommend the book to anyone looking for a way to extend their intercessory prayer time.
Have you tried this? How do you integrate your own talents or hobbies into prayer, worship, or service?