My illustrated bible journal entry this week is inspired by a devotion that I read called, His Yoke Is Easy, from A Little God Time For Mothers. As I researched about "the yolk" the message in the devotion took on a whole different meaning and spoke to me with a reminder that I do not walk alone. When we carry around all of the daily "Life" responsibilities, sometimes they just get too heavy to carry and we feel like we can't go on.....but, then there is Jesus , the stronger one. There to lead and guide us and carry the weight for us.
In Matthew 11, Jesus said that His yolk is easy. He shared these words with His disciples. They knew exactly what He meant because a yolk was regularly used by many of them. Now yokes aren't exactly an everyday household item we have around to use today and this city girl had no idea of what or how a yoke was used!
Sometimes we need to do a little study on what Jesus' intended meaning was, so we can enjoy His life-giving words.
Here is what I now understand about the "yoke".
Animals that worked side by side were linked with a wooden yoke. This yoke was laid across their necks and kept them together. When two animals were linked like this, they were capable of doing much more that what either could do alone. Often a weaker or younger animal was linked to a stronger one. This allowed the stronger one to lead the younger and bear more of the weight.
I'm thinking that I would love to get my hands on a yoke. Where to display it would be a challenge.
Now for the rest of the post. Once I understood......everything made sense. The following photos are of the journal entry in my bible.
I found this photo but cannot find the source to give credit but it just jumped out at me as I was thinking about Jesus carrying my heavy "stuff" because I sometimes feel that I can not. All I have to do is just walk alongside Him and follow!
I attached the photo with washi tape and can be lifted to see the scriptures. I used a label maker to add the caption .
I use my study bible for my entries and it does not have a wide margin for journaling so to post my entries I have to get creative with the room that I have. I keep it simple. My journaling is more of a "smash book" style.
The Reminder. The Message.
Life Can Be Heavy! He Will Carry It For Me!
I enjoy adding color but I also like to see the print through the color. Water color crayons from Target used here for this post.
No bleed through adding just enough color without wrinkle on the thin rice paper .
I usually create some kind of book mark for the page. Here I used a large child's flash card covering up the numbers with card stock and attaching with washi tape on both sides. I had this " I will Follow " card already printed from Illustrated Faith and decided that it went along with the message. A hole punched at the top for ribbon...it just happens to match the washi tape.
"My yoke is easy" Matthew 11:30
Do you feel the weight of responsibility driving you down? When Jesus tells us that His yoke is easy, He is simply inviting us to enjoy His strength. We only need to choose to walk alongside him and let him carry our load.
