I don’t recall the exact time I started to use this phrase, ‘Ribbon and Bows,’ but I do know that it was through seeing how God, in His goodness and graciousness, kept on tying things up in a nice bow. As if, a lovely, delicate ribbon full of beauty and detail was being used by God’s intricate hand to package all things together.
And every time I am left in awe, praising His holy name.
These Ribbon and Bows moments are when God speaks to you through His word, in such a clear lightbulb switching on kind of way. Perhaps details that you thought were unrelated, or even recurring themes and words, suddenly link and come together to reveal to you something that God has clearly been leading you to all along. Or when you have a conversation with someone, and they share a word for you that hits the nail on the head.
I know all the clichés are coming out of the woodwork now.
A Ribbon and Bow moment could be when you read your devotional or the verse of the day and just feel that click in your soul, ‘this was meant for me today.’
Or when you pray and get to see those prayers answered in all kinds of incredible and creative ways that only our loving Father could orchestrate.
Or even when you witness God working in your life in real time, when you are aware of what He is doing and how He is acting as it is all actually happening.
It can also be when someone else shares something with you that resonates and the next day or later that week a completely unrelated incident or moment speaks to you in the same way. Maybe another person talks to you about the exact same thing or you read a passage and it challenges you in the same way.
I am imaging that as you read the generalised examples above things spring to mind, examples from your own life of how God has acted/spoken into your life and then tied things together with a beautiful ribbon in a neat little bow.
I know since the first time I started using this phrase I have lived countless of these Ribbon and Bows moments. I have also shared this phrase with a few close friends and have seen how they have had similar experiences too. With one friend in particular we now use this phrase frequently to describe these types of experiences and it’s so lovely to know what the other one means simply with this phrase.
I intend to use this phrase more and more and I am sure it will pop up in my writing from now on too.
Please do share any of your own Ribbon and Bows moments in the comments if you feel able.
It might be fun, and I imagine encouraging, to read about the Ribbon and Bows moments of others too.