Genesis 26 - The Kiss (She is my Sister III) Quiet Book Page

Another lie, another blessing. What a theme for Genesis chapter 26 - but the ultimate theme is that nothing will stop Messiah from arriving as God planned.

Memory Verse: “Now it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked through a window, and saw, and there was Isaac, showing endearment to Rebekah his wife. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Quite obviously she is your wife; so how could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”” Genesis 26:8-9 NKJV.

Materials needed to create the The Kiss (She is my Sister III) quiet book page:

• A4 felt background sheet - I used light blue
• sewing thread to best match the page
• my free Genesis 26 - The Kiss (She is my Sister III) Bible Quiet Book Template Pattern 
• felt in motley grey, white, green, purple, yellow, orange, dark brown, and two skin colours
• three gold decorative materials to fit in with The Kiss painting by Gustav Klimt (go for circular pattern for the dress, and angular pattern for the tunic)
• small green trim
• tiny blue embroidered flowers (or cut some like I did) or you could actually embroider them
• small scrap of narrow brown rik rak
• clear craft glue if using decorative material which is likely to fray - I used polyacetic acid & ethylene resin based glue
• hot glue gun and glue
• one jewellery toggle clasp set in gold - I bought this (not an affiliate link)
• white 4mm satin ribbon

Firstly, cut out the square background for "The Kiss" out of grey marle felt. Cut out your blanket out of the decorative gold fabric chosen and glue it in place on the grey marle square. You can use the template to ensure it is glued in the correct position. Once dry, sew along the edge of the gold fabric with a super-fine zig-zag stitch to ensure it doesn't fray.

Repeat this process for Issac's tunic. Then sew down a piece of orange felt for Rebecca's hair. I cut out a section where her face was to go, but I recommend not doing that and just sewing her face over the top of her hair. Again, use the template to position everything. 

Next, cut out the rest of the pieces for "The Kiss" and position them on your canvas to make sure they fit together well. Sew down Rebecca's face and Issac's head. I also tried to line up the circles on Rebecca's dress with the circular patterns on the dress of "The Kiss".

Because my circular gold pattern fabric was quite translucent, I layered it over the top of yellow felt. I glued two layers to the felt, then trimmed and cut the slit through the two top layers again to allow the arm to pass through.

Sew the pieces down in the following order: Issac's hands, Rebecca's hand around Issac's neck, Rebecca's arm - ensure that her dress is in position and sew her arm over the top of the dress, folding the sleeve back as in the picture below.

Then continue and sew down Issac's hair and Rebecca's dress. For Rebecca's dress, start at the sleeve and finish at the arm. Glue Issac's sleeve and once dry, follow with another zig-zag edge to prevent fraying. You may notice it was difficult for me to see where the edge was and I got it a little wrong and had to do it again. Happily, I was able to cover the mistake with a blue embroidered flower.

I cut up the blue embroidered flowers to make them smaller to resemble the ones in "The Kiss" and then hot glued them in place. You can also hot glue the small green trim onto Issac's hair at this stage (but I hadn't found something to use at this stage so I actually did it last). I wanted to match the green trim with a green felt for the topiary bush to tie them in together. And then if I used a pale green, I wanted to use a pale purple for King Abimelek and vice versa.

Initially I was going to make the window out of brown felt to resemble wood, but I realised that the painting would look much better with a white border. Also, I figured that if King Abimelek was looking out a Palace window, why wouldn't it have been white-washed. Surely a palace back then would have been decorated nicely. But now I am wondering if he looked through a window into their house instead of looking out a palace window. But then again, it may have been similar to the David and Bathsheba incident, where the king's palace was taller than surrounding houses, and thus when he looked out his window, he could see straight onto the roof of nearby houses. 

Arrange the window pieces onto a square of felt and sew down each plank in order. Make two window pieces (one a mirror image of the other).

Cut four little lengths of ribbon to form hinges and a latch, and melt the edges - see my post on How to Stop Ribbons Fraying. Thread the toggle onto one and fold and secure it to the back edge of the door that you want to open. Sew the hinges to the back edge of the opposite side. 

Then hot glue the other side of the door to this one. Thread the round section of the toggle clasp onto the remaining ribbon and fold it as well. 

Position the window in the middle upper portion of the page and make sure there is enough room for the window to open. I wanted to have a clasp on either side so the window could be latched open or closed, but there just wasn't enough room.

Cut out the window frame and pin it in position over the top of the hinges (but not the toggle ribbon). Pin and sew the inside edge of the frame only. Ensure there is enough ribbon length on the hinges to open and close the window freely.

Now cut out the blue page background from the inside of the window frame. Position "The Kiss" behind it before sewing down the outer edge of the window frame, tucking in the ends of the ribbon hinges and securing the ribbon with the round part of the clasp in place as you go.

Insert the toggle into the clasp to secure the window while sewing the rest of the page.

Cut out your remaining template or pieces and arrange them on your page to get the right position. Sew down the white pot while you have white thread on your machine.

Now you can sew down the pieces of your topiary bush - I couldn't get it to look right and asked Faith and Felt Obsession's Facebook followers to help me. 

Thankfully someone noticed that I had two of the pieces upside down. When that was fixed, it fit together perfectly!

Complete the page by sewing down the pieces for King Abimelek in the following order: neck, head, hand, foot, brown rik rak as a shoe, tunic sleeve, hair, crown. Use your template too line everything up correctly.

Finished!

Difficulty Level = Intermediate

The main difficulty I had was sewing a super-fine zig-zag edge around the paper thin decorative fabric, especially where there was a second layer of the same fabric on top of itself (such as Issac's arm) which made it difficult to see.

Key Learning Areas and Skills

• Genesis 26 - Lying will get found out!
• Art Education - learn about the famous painting "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt - see the article Art Analysis: The Kiss by Klimt by Artsper Magazine
• Jewellery clasps - open and close the window using the toggle clasps
• Peek-a-boo - open the window to find out what is behind
• Fine Motor Skills - all quiet books encourage fine motor skill development
• Hand-eye Co-ordination - all quiet books encourage hand-eye co-ordination

Read the Chapter

Genesis 26

Devotional

Yet another example of God blessing us despite ourselves. All three instances where a patriarch tells a foreign king that his wife is his sister, in addition to many of the matriarchs being barren for a long time before conception, are meant to portray that God's will WILL succeed despite the enemies best efforts. Jesus was born through a line of lying, wife-sacrificing and barren ancestors. God's strength is made perfect in weakness.

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How did my re-imagined "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt go? 

Time to Celebrate: Jubilee Bead Cycle tutorial (plus bracelet craft) for the High Holidays

Often I have ideas brewing in my head for a long time. I've been thinking about the Jubilee Cycle for quite a while now, but when I saw this How the Church tells time post pinned on Pinterest, it immediately sparked the idea to make a floor or coffee-table sized Jubilee Bead Cycle.

In Bible terms, years are measured in seven year blocks called weeks. The seventh year in each block was to be a Sabbath for the land - it was not to be ploughed or planted. Seven lots of seven year blocks (49 years) was followed by a 50th year known as the Jubilee (Yovel in Hebrew). This was a complete cycle. The Jubilee was supposed to see any slaves go free and land sold during the 49 years return to the rightful owners as it was granted to by God after the conquest of Canaan. It is also a picture of what will happen on the New Earth.

I think this could be an appropriate craft for either Rosh Hashanah / Feast of Trumpets or Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement. The civil New Year starts on Rosh Hashanah, but a Jubilee Year is not formally announced until ten days later on Yom Kippur. And whilst Yom Kippur is generally not a fun holiday but rather a solemn fast, when a Jubilee is announced, it cannot help but be celebrated - slaves were to go free, land and property returned to the original owners as given by God, and families were reunited. I believe Jesus is coming again to announce the ultimate Jubilee.

How to make a Jubilee / Yovel Bead Cycle

I bought a large pack of 25mm round wooden beads - you will need 50.

Paint seven beads in one colour to represent the Sabbath years and paint one bead in another colour to represent the Jubilee year. I threaded them onto skewers and cut a 'v' shape into cardboard boxes to lay them in whilst painting and drying them. Round things can be tricky to paint and dry without getting them stuck or the paint uneven.

You can use polish or varnish to seal your beads if you like. I chose to leave mine so I can write Bible references on them if I want to later (which I have talked about at the end of this post).

Once dry, thread them on to a long piece of 2mm elastic in the following order:

• 6 plain wooden beads, 1 painted Sabbath bead
• 6 plain wooden beads, 1 painted Sabbath bead
• 6 plain wooden beads, 1 painted Sabbath bead
• 6 plain wooden beads, 1 painted Sabbath bead
• 6 plain wooden beads, 1 painted Sabbath bead
• 6 plain wooden beads, 1 painted Sabbath bead
• 6 plain wooden beads, 1 painted Sabbath bead
• 1 painted Jubilee bead

Tie the ends of the elastic together and trim.

Finished!

Of course, we are also planning to make a quiet book page out of this idea too... 

So we have made a practice one already.

Some people believe that the Jubilee year was actually the same year as the last year of the 49th year, or it overlaps the last half of the 49th year and the first half or the 1st year. They think the Jubilee disrupts the seven year Sabbath cycle and interpret Jesus' parable of the fig tree to relate to Israel in the last days and the dating of the last seven years of Daniel's prophecy which they believe have been cut of and delayed until just prior to Jesus' second coming.

I disagree because:

1. The Bible specifically says "the fiftieth year"
2. Pentecost follows a similar pattern, with the celebration occurring on the fiftieth day following a period of seven weeks
3. The meaning of the word Jubilee relates to a period of 50 years. The Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee did not mean she had been ruling for 49 years!
4. Jesus' parable of the fig tree related to the dating of the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, which I hope to discuss in further detail in a future post
5. The last week of Daniel's prophecy was not cut off, it was an accurate prophecy of the Death of Jesus our Messiah (who was the one cut off - not the week). This is the historical view of this prophecy if you want to look it up in the mean time, but it should also be the topic of a future post.
6. Including a fiftieth year into a cycle also rounds the seven year cycles up so that they continue to fit nicely into thousand year blocks, ensuring that sets of years remain fitting within a millennium. It is also consistent with the Millennial Day Theory where each day of creation represents a millennium of Earth's history. As Peter says - one day is like a thousand years to the LORD. It allows even measurements of years throughout the ages (an age is 2000 years). There are three ages, then the Sabbath millennium. 
7. I believe the Jubilee follows the Sabbath and interrupts the Sabbath Year Cycle in order to represent Eternity

We also made a Jubilee Bead Cycle bracelet, which could be used as a follow-up craft for a Bible Class after the kids see the larger version for the story. I panicked a little when I took this photo because I thought for a moment that I had put the beads on in the wrong order. I didn't, it just needs to be flipped over! And the elastic to be trimmed...

I am thinking of writing Bible verses on each wooden bead which can be talked about in order when showing the kids (and adults). I think us adults learn through visual stimuli just as much as the kids...

There are so many examples of seven year periods in the Bible:

• Jacob working for Rachel, Leah, and his flocks
• Pharaoh's dreams of the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine
• Solomon's Temple took seven years to build
• The wicked queen Athaliah reigned six years and they were set free from her on the Sabbath
• Daniel's seventy weeks (works out to 10 Jubilee cycles)
• Hezekiah records a harvest lasting three years (probably over a Jubilee)... 
• and I haven't looked into events that might have lasted 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49 or 50 years yet!

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Have you made any other Rosh Hashanah / Feast of Trumpets or Yom Kippur / Day of Atonement crafts? Let me know below!