For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13 (NLT) There’s a piece of my heart that holds special memories of birthdays past. My mother was the Queen of cakes.  She would design and bake a cake to fit the theme of my life each year —  a ballerina cake with pink and purple streamers and a guitar cake with licorice strings to name just two. She loved making them and making my birthdays memorable. I have since grown up, and my mother has passed away, but the tradition of making birthdays special in our family continues. Homemade cakes, however, have been replaced with store bought ones, but the love…

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10 (NLT) One of Merriam-Webster’s definitions for masterpiece is “a work done with extraordinary skill; especially: a supreme intellectual or artistic achievement.” Most of the famous masterpieces we know, i.e. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Michelangelo’s painting of the Sistine Chapel, to name just two, were not completed overnight. Years and years of work went into them. I recently viewed a video on Smithsonian.com which showed how Michelangelo used a creative technique to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. It was not done…