T'was The Night Before Jesus Came
'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.
The children were dressing to crawl into bed,
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.
When out of the East there arose such a clatter,
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!
When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be The Day!
The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.
In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "It's not here" my head hung in shame.
The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound
While all the rest were left standing around.
I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and this sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.
In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!
~~~~~Author Unknown~~~~~
I had a hard time photographing this one. The stained glass nativity scene was stamped in gold but it doesn't show properly in the picture neither do the transparent beads I added to the stars. As for the metal foil, I've used a wrap from a Kinder chocolate bar again. I'm recycling as much as I can these days. (The background of the ATCs below had been previously wrapping a Christmas present.)
At One Powerful Hour the theme is 2008 revisited, which gave me the chance to finally end my domino keychain, although it obviously took me more than an hour to have it done. I started by gluing with "Alkyl" varnish a scrap of Christmas gift wrap to a bamboo domino I had bought on ebay months ago and had wanted to use for ages. After two coats of "Alkyl" (which were actually not necessary, as I realized later), I coated the domino with Antique Medium I, let it dry and then applied Antique Medium II for a crackling effect. Next I added dissolved "Goldfinger" to it and quickly wiped off the excess.(You can get a similar result with acrylic paint.) Finally I added the cotton thread and the beads. I had a lot of trouble trying to make the thread go through the flower beads holes; it was simply too thick for those holes. That's why one of the threads has some knots instead of a bead. I'm not totally satisfied with the way this project turned out, but was it is my first altered domino, I won't be too hard on myself.
I'd like to say thank you very much to all the visitors to my blog throughout the year. A big warm thank you to all those who take the time to leave such uplifting comments to my simple creations. You really make my day! God bless you! Have a Merry Christmas time and a New Year full of the Lord's blessings!
