Hunting sporran for Bible Monkey!

[biblemonkey]

[QUOTE=Nighthawk;934145]Hugh, I have actually been meaning to ask that very thing. I just got so caught up in making the thing that I didn't get around to it! So yes, I would love to know what the significance of the verse is. I looked it up and read it, so I have a basic, general idea.QUOTE]


The reasons for this particular design are many and if this comes out long winded, I apologize.

It all started about two years ago when I lost my drafting job. It was the second time in five years that I had lost a professional and promising job due in some way to my personal problems. Though my employer really liked me and my work he just couldn’t have me in the office until I got myself together. At the time I was so despondent and depressed (clinically runs in the family) that I finally admitted to the things that I was going through to my pastor as I could no longer contain the hurt alone even though that was what my stubborn male ego told me to do. I went through then and still am now, counseling on various emotional and personal issues and though I got a sales job that paid the bills for a time I was miserable there. After I got myself back together (for the most part)through a whole lot of meditative Bible study and prayer (something I was never good at and really had to work hard at) as well as support from good strong men of God who had been there themselves, I ran across 1 Peter 5:10, “And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” I let that verse hold me steady as a reminder that my strength alone was not all I had to lean on and someday this hurt would pass and I could make a better life for my family. God would restore me Himself and, as long as I was faithful in keeping my end of things up, it would turn out alright eventually. I just had to fight to get there for a while. Then, when a man in my church mentioned another drafting job he knew of which I then got and still have (nine months now!) and love, the verse became my motto. It is a reminder to me of the things I needed to remember in my darkest days when the worst parts of me were all I could see. The oak tree on the cross is an artistic representation of strength and perseverance as well as the “tree of life” which I view as flowing from the risen Christ as well as the one from Genesis that promised another type of eternal life. The green helps it stand out from the rest and draw the eye but not clash visually. The brown on the circle and the oak leaves in the circle continue the visual of the tree branches without distracting from the cross too much. The fact that they are brown leaves and the rest of the “tree” is green has come to mean the changing of time and of the seasons. Some of these things came to me later in the development of the design and some I had in mind from the beginning.

The practical reasons for the design are as follows.

I wanted a hunting sporran because I am partial to them and they are versatile. The idea for the removable metal cantle and rivets came from my ignorance of basic sporran design and I wanted that feature so I could use that same custom sporran for casual and formal events and not have to have two identical sporrans with only that minor difference. The initial color suggestions came from Nighthawk and we worked on different color combinations over the last few weeks as well as other ideas springing to life through mutual creativity.

As an aside I feel like I should mention that I came to my faith later in life and through the early years I had to fight my way through a lot of misconceptions and bigotry directed toward the Church. For about half of my life I wanted nothing to do with God and had a very cynical attitude toward the Bible. My mother was not very supportive of my eventual faith but after a few years came to accept it and now views it as an “odd personal choice”. Because of my personal battles and having to learn as much as I could so I could explain my faith to the secular world (and some know it all Brothers in the faith) knowledgably, there are some things that mean a great deal to me as I have seen them worked out practically in my life. The items on the sporran are among them. Faith should be real and should be meant to start heartfelt and open conversations. It is my hope that this sporran will start many open conversations about my faith, my family, and kilts in general. I also hope to point a few folks in Nighthawk's direction as he was truly great through this whole process.

Sorry for the long winded reply and I hope this story was worth the read.
Thanks,
Hugh

[tripleblessed]

My thanks to both of you for the info. Both stories underline one of my favorite observations on life. I'm one those would say I'm not a religious person, particularly, but my spiritual life is why I am. No large life, lots of hard knocks,
but through it all the flow of grace can seen in large and small things, in
unexpected, at the time often unwelcome, but serendipitous happenings.
Without it I would never have survived this far.

[MacRobert's Reply]

That's a great testimony Biblemonkey and the nearest to a sermon that a sporran is likely to be! Thanks for sharing them both.