I guess the short answer is “HOPE”.
No…. not “I hope I can start a business” or “I hope people like these little pieces of metal with words stamped on them” or even “I hope I can bless someone today”. NOPE…just HOPE J.
I needed HOPE.
I had been messing around with making some wire creations for quite some time. Weaving, winding, twisting and knotting wire to make useful and some not so useful creations. Like what knitting and crocheting is for some…. Wire was for me. It is quiet therapy that kept my hands busy and my body still. My kids, my husband, my friends would watch, join in or just chat with me while I created some crazy creations. It had been a tough year… and as the Lord stilled my body He Restored my JOY.
One morning… I sat here… in this very chair that I sit in now… and I saw a plethora of wire creations that were overtaking my already cluttered decor…. some of them needed to find a new home. I prayed… and felt like God was giving me the green light to open a little online store. Maybe someone would want to buy these little wire gems. So… November 18, 2011 I opened an ETSY shop and called it ReJoyed. I took the name from Psalm 51:12 … REstore to me the JOY of my salvation.
I got a few likes and favorites… but not one sale. OK…
Then, one day I needed HOPE. Life had taken a hard turn and I was once again trying desperately to turn my gaze back to JESUS. A wire creation… this one a precious cross sat in front of me as I sat in the wood shop (aka garage), talking with my sweet husband. I was trying to figure out how to put a word on that cross. I picked up a nearby hammer (one of several in his well tooled shop) and smashed the wire on the edge of that cross. Not out of anger, or fear or anything really… but when I smashed it flat and I saw a surface. A place that could hold a word… “Dusty… do you know where I can get some metal stamps?”
My husband… I never know what causes him to respond to my whims at some times and not at others… but this day he responded… and within a few hours I had a set of stamps and I hammered out H… O… P… E… Not on that cross… the space was too small… but on a copper pipe that was near- by… that I hammered flat. Turns out smashing copper pipe is good for the soul. I then hammered out HOPE on a piece I cut from a metal tray I had purchased at a thrift shop. I made a cross imprint and posted my little piece of HOPE on facebook… and I suddenly realized that this word in this way was powerful. Words… pounded out on hard fought for surfaces reclaimed from the throw away pile… reclaimed… re-purposed… pieces of metal. Words prayed over…. Deliberate words spelled out letter by letter. The entire process was a reminder that HOPE is real… and it is stamped on my heart…. because of the cross.
The cross is the place where another Hammer hit Metal. The cross is a place where THE WORD that “became flesh and dwelt among us” took the nail. Wow! Now that is HOPE! A hard fought for HOPE! This HOPE, His HOPE Re-claims and Re-purposes and ReJoys everything HE touches.
So… I thought It all started with HOPE. I didn’t expect to land here…But I’m so glad I did. So, how did ReJoyed start? Short answer…. JESUS! 