"STITCHING MENDS MY SOUL"

Monday, January 28, 2013

WOMEN OF THE BIBLE: DELILAH



This week we are studying Delilah.  Her story of course includes Samson.  Samson's mother was told that God was giving special strength to the son she would bear.  In return, his part of the bargain would include living clean and not cutting his hair.

Delilah was a prostitute who three kings offered a large sum if she could learn Samson's secret to his strength.  The secret of course was God's promise to his mother.  Delilah used her feminine wiles to nag and beg Samson to tell her.  When he finally did, she cut off his hair while he lay sleeping, his strength was gone, and she delivered him over to the Philistines. 

They gouged out Samson's eyes and imprisoned him.  While in prison his hair grew back and so did his favor with God.  In the end Samson used his regained strength to kill many Philistines, and himself, when he took down their temple by knocking over the supporing pillars with his strength..

The block for Delilah is called Blind Man's Fancy.  Since Delilah used her beauty and feminine powers to learn Samson's secret, I decided to use feminine colors for this block.  I used the stripey one, because it reminds me of hair, and hair was a key player in this story.

This lesson makes us think about times we have used manipulation to achieve our goals. It also reminds us God uses all sorts of people, not just saints, to further his plans.



This 6" block is fiddley, with many small pieces (as this picture demonstrates), but with paper piecing it is not difficult.

There is a paper piecing tutorial on my blog tutorial page.  Sometimes it helps to see how many people do it, and use what works for you.

1 comment:

Cyn said...

Excellent block, Pat. You sure did a great job with all the tiny HSTs. Impressive... PPing or not!