links: 66 books, adoption, yarn recycling, and more!

I'll start with this cool video of each of the books of the Bible as a word cloud. Who the whole thing's about really does jump out at you (and the transition you see from the OT to NT most-frequent word is kinda cool):

Hat tip to Challies.com.

Fred Sanders reviews a new book on the theology of adoption.

Here's a post on recycling yarn, i.e., buying sweaters made of yummy fibers at thrift stores and frogging them for the yarn. Apparently it's a cheap way to get things like cashmere and merino wool. Can I just say, what an awesome idea? The linked post has lots of details about the tricks involved in successfully deconstructing a sweater.

Another craft-related link, if you can stand it: a review of the latest issue of Vogue Knitting. Now, I'm not a knitter, but I'm learning a lot about how to read a pattern picture from reading this blogger's analysis of VK. Plus, it's funny.

Over at bearing blog, a post on "The Demon that Feeds on Fasting". How's that for a provocative title? My favorite part:

I am thankful for obedience, which relieves the heart of some of its responsibility to ferret apart good and bad intentions.

That insight struck me because many has been the time when I have stood, stymied, confused about what I should do because I couldn't figure out if I wanted to do it out of a good motive or a bad. However, she's right: we can always just obey. Some things are always right, and when we focus on obeying out of love for Christ, i.e., obeying the commandment because He told us to and He is Himself and we are His, that can cut through a lot of the crap. The topic might be lust or sloth or (as in her post) gluttony, and we can have layers and layers of hang-ups about whatever it is, but we can always just obey, and concentrate on the obedience instead of the sin. I like that idea.

-Princess-to-be Kate Middleton surely can wear a hat. Wow! I hope she succeeds in bringing them back into fashion.

I've found the "Goal/Conflict/Disaster or Reaction/Dilemma/Decision" model of scene-building incredibly useful (though I, sadly, can't remember where I read about it first), but I'm going to have to add Patricia Wrede's "Plot/Background/Characterization" analysis to my toolbox. Great, useful blogpost for any fellow writers out there.

Since we started with a cool video, we'll end with a silly one (watch out, it might get stuck in your head):

Have a great weekend, folks!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell