I entered the spacious hotel lobby and saw hundreds of horribly unfashionably dressed young people. One girl with old-fashioned blue ribbons in her braids called her friends to pray; they formed a circle and easily asked God for something, as if God was their close friend or relative. How could they talk to God like that, and wear braids with ribbons? - I thought.
Later, I learned that in the USSR, Protestant Christians were denied access to universities and could not get good jobs. Most of them lived in villages, held secret church gatherings, and many pastors and ministers were imprisoned. Fashion wasn't their priority. But there was something incredible in these young people - an inner light, strength, and beauty that spoke more than any human words.
In the evening, I attended a meeting of these strange people and quietly sat in a corner of the room. They prayed as if God truly existed, sang as if Jesus was right there. I gazed at their faces and saw the beauty I had been seeking all my life - a radiant joy and peace that I desperately needed.
I was born in Georgia, in an ancient city high in the Caucasus mountains, where a wise and hospitable people live and sing songs of incredible beauty. My pregnant mother left for Tbilisi to her parents, as my biological father hated me even before my birth. He tried to force my mother to have an illegal abortion and even staged a motorcycle accident to make her lose the baby. The enemy tried to kill me even before I was born, but God saved me through my brave mother. Later, it turned out that my father already had a pregnant lover. He planned to divorce my mother and simply didn't want to pay child support.
"You never knew your father. I will be your Father, and I will never leave you - says the Lord," unexpectedly proclaimed a preacher from distant America, pointing directly at me. Yes, I had never seen my biological father; I buried the pain of rejection deep in my heart and was afraid to even admit this pain to myself. But God knew. That evening, I opened my heart to Jesus. It wasn't me who found the meaning of life; the Meaning of life found me.
"To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified." Isaiah 61:3
These words from Isaiah were spoken by the preacher as he prayed for me that evening at the first legal youth Christian conference in Russia.
There are no two identical sunsets on Earth. The sky is God's postcard; every day He writes a message to our hearts. The shining dawn speaks of His love blossoming anew. White cloud wings - angels of God - protect you. When the sky is heavy with lead, He is sad because there is so much pain and tears in the world, and so few understand how much He loves us. Every crimson-burning sunset cries out about the precious blood of Christ shed for us on Golgotha, and each star in the sky shines with hope of His grace. Even when stars are invisible, and the rain falls day after day, dawn still breaks through the gray clouds like a gentle smile from the Father, warming the soul with love. A wise heart reads the script of the heavens; this message is for all human souls.
And how was the first sunrise on Earth? What did the sky and the Earth look like? I thought about this while creating dresses for the first part of my Biblical dress collection - "Creation."
The silhouette of the dress "First Dawn" recalls the era of the Silver Age; delicate silk velvet plays a whimsical pattern on chiffon, sleeves rise like clouds at the slightest breeze.
The heavy purple satin of the "Luminaries" dress and the lightest Lyon chiffon, hand-dyed by French masters in several shades. Christian Lacroix decorations sparkle like a sprinkling of stars. Long sleeves float in the air, as if wings or comet trains.
The three dresses representing Fire, Air, and Water - symbolize the elements of creation. Fine viscose velvet of deep colors - blue, the color of the sea wave, and ruby-burgundy adorned with golden trim. Delicate veils are covered with a pattern depicting winged angels, completing the image of the cosmic beauty of our planet's creation.
Genesis 1:2
