Winter Seeds: Margin for Making
introducing a January journey
Hello friends. I am so glad each of you are here in this little blue space.
I’ve been talking to my creative friends about what it is like to be an artist in the church this year. Much has surfaced from those deep talks, but one is the longing for more time and more connection. We all long for more space to be, for more time to think and act creatively—it is a way we bear God’s image as Maker. There is a playfulness and joy in making that resonates with us as children and often gets drowned out as an adult.
We have to be intentional in order to create that kind of margin—it doesn’t just happen for most of us. Out of that longing in myself and my friends, a little dream has been growing in me since the summer called Winter Seeds: Margin for Making. I shared briefly about this new venture a couple weeks ago. I am now ready to share more!
I grew up in a household of artists where evenings often ended in sitting around our old, wooden table with sketchbooks or novels or stitching. We would sometimes be silent, or sometimes talk, but always, we created together, checked in on projects, and encouraged one another in our creative endeavors. My mom was a master of space-making, encouraging, and dreaming, and we got to live in that blessed space for many years.
I am more and more aware of how much I still need that kind of encouragement. It can be so challenging to admit our needs, but along with encouragement, I need accountability, prayer, and the creative energy of other artists and makers.
We cannot make our best, most beautiful works apart from Christ and apart from his people. The making of a work of beauty might happen in solitude, but the development of ideas and the encouragement to keep on happens in community.
Rhythms or habits are good for us—we were made for them, and they help us keep our creative work going. When those rhythms are disrupted, many of us have quite a hard time returning to the good and meaningful ones. It can feel like leaving the warmth of a cheery hearth for the obscurity of a blizzard.
One of those welcome, but still disruptive disruptions I’ve been thinking and praying about is the winter holiday season. When Christmas winds down to Epiphany, many people start taking down decorations, turning off the warm strings of stars on the outsides of their homes, in their windows, and along their streets. Resurrecting our ordinary rhythms after the festivities and emotional weight of the holidays can be hard.
In that complicated light, I want to begin 2025 in shared rhythms of looking for God’s glory in likely and unlikely places, and letting that glory grow into new and beautiful works of wonder. I want to begin with setting apart time for making beauty—and I want you to come along.
So what is Winter Seeds?
Winter Seeds: Margin For Making is a 25-day journey to intentionally carve out margin for making faithful, creative works. We will be planting a habit of space for creating works that bring glory to God—whether we make 25 or spend the 25 days working toward making one.
Together, we will take 15-20 minutes a day to think, look, pray, and see what seeds might take hold in that soil, and grow into hours and days of Spirit-filled creating.
If you are dry and don’t feel you can create anything, this is the place for you.
If you are hungry to invite the Spirit into your making, this is the place for you.
If you are excited to begin Ordinary Time by making things, this is the place for you.
If you are curious about creating, but don’t call yourself an artist, this is the place for you.
If you want more space to simply be—to look and listen to the beauty of the world God made, this is the place for you.
What does it look like to build a creative habit in community?
In some ways, I don’t know yet. Until we walk this snow-covered hill together, we may have no notion of the light God is sending, of the trees that will be planted, of the ways we will grow, the ideas that could flourish. Let us hold loosely the outcomes and trust the Lord’s process.
In some ways I do know what this will look like, at least in structure:
Daily Rhythms
Each of the 25 days will follow a similar pattern where we are given:
a word as a thread through the day
a work of art, music, poetry, or prose as a seed of beauty
a passage of Scripture on which to meditate
an invitation to respond
for locals to Northeast Ohio, we will have a couple in-person gatherings
A Bigger Picture
I want God’s word to shape my life, not to try to shape the Word to fit my life better. In order to do that, our 25 days will follow the big-picture story the Bible tells us about who God is and who we are in light of that.
Nancy Guthrie used a similar pattern at her Biblical Theology Workshop, which I attended recently, where she used four words to tell the story of the Bible. As she was speaking, I immediately wrote down five words that we would use together as the seeds of inspiration.
Creation: God created a world where humans could flourish and co-rule with him over creation. We’ll spend 5 days gathering inspiration from God’s creation of the world.
Fall: Humans rebelled against God’s good rule and tried to create their own kingdom and order apart from God. We’ll spend 5 days reflecting on how humankind tries to define good apart from God.
Deliverance: God provided the means to deliver humans from the death and destruction they created through Jesus. We’ll spend 5 days meditating on Jesus’ deliverance of his people.
Preparation: We live now in a time where Jesus is preparing a new creation, and preparing our hearts to live in it. We’ll spend 5 days pondering how Jesus prepares us and this world for his kingdom.
Renewal: God has promised to renew us, and to renew creation. His kingdom renews the world in part now, and will renew in full when Jesus returns to take his place as the ruler of creation. We’ll spend the last 5 days considering the glory of the renewal God has promised to us and the world.
Winter landscape (1922) Alfred Poell (Austrian, 1867-1929)
How to Participate
Are you in? Let’s get you going!
Firstly, please fill out this google form to let me know you are participating! I’ll be sending some encouragement and things to pray and think about as we prepare for this journey over the next couple of months.
Secondly, you’ll need to sign up for my Substack newsletter. This is where each day’s invitation will be found once we begin. If you haven’t used Substack, good news! It is simple, and emails you my newsletter when you subscribe. If you are already subscribed, good news! You don’t need to do anything more…yet.
Thirdly, to join for all 25 days, you’ll need to pay the $10 participation fee. In January, I’ll change some settings so you can pay for the month (that’s how Substack works, you pay by month, so I can’t open it sooner).
Why am I charging? Two reasons.
When you pay for something, you are just that much more likely to stay committed to it, and commitment is one of the ways we build habits. I want this to be a worthwhile experience for you, and if you can commit with your word and your wallet, you are that much more likely to be all in.
This has been an enormous project for me. I have loved every minute, but it has taken a great deal of time and energy to prayerfully design the structure, draw some of the graphics, and carefully write each invitation so that is serves you well. Paying for Winter Seeds helps enable me to do more projects like this and be more present with you along our January journey when I could be spending my time in other ways.
Note: I’ll send out an email to let you know when to sign up for the paid subscription (in January, before the 7th). I won’t be posting any paid content until then, so please continue to enjoy this place for free as we build up to January! I will be sharing more details, some sneak previews, and some encouragement as we walk towards wintry weather and our time together.
To Review:
15-20 minutes a day for 25 days
inspiration from words, art (of all kinds) + Scripture
invitation to respond with thanks, reflection, or creation/making
interaction with community of others practicing the same habit
$10 to participate
note about the art: most of the artwork we will encounter together will be work that is old enough that it is not copyrighted anymore. I think we have much to learn from artists of old, but I want to set your expectations. The newer works will be used with permission to honor those who have made the works, and many will be works from people I know. Fame is not a measure of how God can use a work of beauty in our lives. In a very few instances I have linked to platforms where the artist will receive compensation for your listening/viewing.
What questions do you have about Winter Seeds?
Do you think you’ll join us on this January journey?
I’m truly looking forward to this!
I love this.... I'm so glad to have something to look forward to!