B is for "Birthdays"...

(We celebrated years of God's goodness to us this past weekend.  I turned 29 on December 15 and B.J. turned 30 on December 17.)

and "Blessed"

"Blaze"

"Bunches" [of candles]

"Beloved"

"Blow"

"Baby Girls"

"Beg"

and "Breakfast in Bed."

Good Morning

Then Jacob was left alone;

and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.

Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him,

He touched the socket of his hip;

and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.

And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” 
But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!” 
So He said to him, “What is your name?” 

He said, "Jacob."

And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob [Deceiver],

but Israel [Prince of God]; for you have struggled

with God and with men, and have prevailed."

Then Jacob asked, saying, "Tell me your name, I pray."

And He said, 

"Why is it that you ask about My name?"

And He blessed him there. 

So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel:

“For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

Just as he crossed over Penuel

the sun rose on him…

Genesis 32:24 ff

the Christmas letter

Merry Christmas, loved ones –

When I reflect on the past months, merry is one of the last words that comes to my mind.  In January we – along with the rest of B.J.’s family – were shocked to learn that his dad had filed for divorce.  The ensuing legal process lasted through September.  Dad’s actions are like a shadow that stretches long over the past year.

In spite of that, B.J.’s third year of teaching at Trinity ended, and his fourth – and best ever, he says – is well underway.  He completed a term as deacon and began a term on the grade school board.  He once again spent the summer working at Jim’s Camper with other jobs on the side – hogs, mechanic work, you name it.  He took off only one day this entire summer – a sultry July day that was spent at Lake Pahoja with my family and ended with sleeping in our little pop-up camper through a mighty thunderstorm.

Our generous Leah is now 7, in the first grade, and lacking front teeth.  She relishes keeping all of her Kindergarten classmates in line at school and her siblings in line at home.  Late one August night, Leah was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, which was exacerbated by her asthma.  The next morning she was airlifted to Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls, where she spent several days.  She recovered in time for the first day of the school year and now receives a double daily dose of an inhaled steroid that helps keep the asthma attacks at bay.

Willem, just 5, is like a bear.  He hibernates for long periods of time in the basement – not sleeping, definitely not sleeping.  In fact, the child has an aversion to sleep, or to sitting still in general, for that matter.  No, he hibernates in the basement building intricate LEGO machines, buildings, pirate islands, you name it.  Will’s favorite days are the Saturdays when his Daddy is around – he follows B.J. for hours without any thought of lunch or coming inside.  “Busy helpin’ Dad,” he says.

Though only three, sweet Marie is the first of our children able to get up during the night to go potty and help herself to a sip of water without needing to issue a report at our bedside.  She spends hours at the little table in the kitchen, intently coloring or drawing. She has two favorite expressions, both of which she says in a tone of voice that makes one feel as if his or her back has been run down a cheese grater: I’m hungry and I don’t know what to do.

Nathan can charm just about anybody with his deep blue eyes and toothy grin.  He is aptly nicknamed Little Man: though he turned one year in July he shows no intention of walking anytime soon, and he's content with a 4-word vocabulary: Mama, Dad, ball, and car.  

I’m left.  Well, the rest of the family is usually fed, clothed, smiling, know their memory work, are learning how to count to 20, like books, and are generally where they need to be almost on time…that’s me, behind the scenes.  And occasionally I read, write, photograph, and post to my blog, sarahssundries.blogspot.com.  My favorite times of the day are the early mornings when I’m doing those things, or the late evenings, when our children are sleeping with quiet hearts and full tummies, and B.J. and I are cuddling on the couch, sipping tea and chatting.

As I look back over the past year, I must confess that we have come to know more fully than ever the love of the Father who never forsakes.  And so, for everything that has been: Thanks, Lord! and to everything that will be: Yes!

Our kids’ favorite ABC Bible verse cd is playing, track H:

"Happy is the people whose God is the Lord, happy is the people whose God is Lord!  La la la-la la la la-la!  Psalm 144:15!"

  

May your Christmas be that kind of merry.

With love,

B.J. & Sarah

Leah, Willem, Marie & Nathan

When we visited Michigan in October, we came back with a bag of fabric and a plastic globe, things Mom found in the attic following the divorce.

The globe is a throw-back to the ‘80s – Russia is still the U.S.S.R.,and there’s no Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania.  No Bosnia.

It has an electrical cord and doubles as a touch lamp.

It rests atop the computer desk, next to the Jesse tree.  When dusk starts to fall, I light the tree and tap the globe.

Jesus, the Christmas Light…His light shines throughout this world.

Jacob's Ladder

We read the story of Jacob this morning.  Jacob, the one who desires the birthright, who covets not only material blessing, but Messiah’s birth.   The one known as the deceiver, who, like father Isaac and grandfather Abraham before him, prefers to take things into his own hands.  The one who makes a long and lonely trek to a land he’s never seen before because his own brother intends to end his life.  The weary, troubled one who settles to sleep with nothing but a stone for a pillow.

We read about the dream that Jacob dreams that night: of the ladder that reaches from earth to heaven, of the angels that descend and ascend upon it, and of God Himself at the top, reaffirming His covenant promise: “In you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.  Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

Then we skip ahead nearly 2,000 years to the first chapter of the book of John.  Jesus’ earthly ministry is just beginning.  He calls Philip to follow him, and Philip runs to tell his friend Nathanael that he has found the Messiah.  Nathanael, doubtful, yet curious, comes, and Jesus greets him, “Behold, an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit!”  And this descendant of the deceiver responds: "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"  Jesus’ answer?  "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these.  Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

            So we hang a ladder on our Jesse Tree, and we meditate on the One Who opens heaven, the only Way to God, the One on Whose merit the ministry of the angels depends.  The One on Whom our prayers go up, the One on Whom the angels descend to minister to those who are the heirs of salvation.  We imagine for a moment that we are the shepherds, and the angels are praising God and proclaiming peace at the birth of Jacob’s Offspring, in Whom all the families of the earth are blessed. 

            Note Jacob’s response to his dream:  1) Wonder:  “Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.  And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." 2) Worship:  “So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.”  3) A vow to give back to God of his wealth:  "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God,  and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you."

‘Tis Advent, friends.  Marvel at the wonder of heaven opened.  Worship.  And give to God of the abundant wealth that He has given to you.  He is with you, and will keep you wherever you go.  He will not leave you until He has done what He has promised: to bring you to that heavenly land, carried in angels’ arms up the rungs of Jacob’s Ladder.

First Snow

(Oh, it snowed on Saturday!)

Whose child I am I think I know,

yet oft I long for Him to show

His face upon this wasteland, cheer

my dearth:  and then He sends the snow

to cool my tongue.  I bend my ear

to hear Him who holds this trembling sphere.

He whispers in each downy flake:

His still, small voice, it draws me near.

Just as my children gently make

a man of snow, so He doth take

my life.  He means my soul to keep,

for on this one He’s set His stake.

So though the miles be dark and deep,

though sin and sorrow o’er me sweep,

my Lord His promises will keep,

‘til in His arms I fall asleep.

Hat # 1...hmmm...there's something not quite right... 

Hat number #2...better.

Pie-crust rolls for the boys...

and apple pie.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Rejoice in the LORD, ye righteous;

and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness.

Psalm 97:12

I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live:

I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

Psalm 104:33

Napkin notes

On Leah's first day of Kindergarten, I used a permanent marker to write a note on the napkin in her lunch.


Without intending to, I started something.

 Some mornings I have more time...

some, less.

 

I missed one day.


Leah came home bawling.


"I went through the whole day feeling like you had forgotten about me, Mom!"

I haven't forgotten since.

 

(I know it must be a good one when I find it stashed in the drawer with her socks.)

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life.  The truth is, of course, that what one calls the 'interruptions' are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination.  


~ C.S. Lewis

And who is my neighbor?

Removed...out of love for my neighbor.

See instead this radio sermon by Rev. Carl Haak.

Sarah

Mama's helpers

The question comes this morning, as my husband's truck barrels east up the road, into the rising sun, and I sink into my chair at the table and open the devotional I'm reading with a sigh.  

“Why do you love me, Mama?”

Leave it to Marie to ask the hard questions.  This gamine little girl, crazy red curls in her face, she doesn’t simply ask, “Do you love me?” but “Why?”  And then she sits there in her striped pjs, the ones B.J. calls “the convict jammies,” mashing a banana peel into the breakfast table.

“Because God gave you to me to love, Marie, that’s why.  Do you love me?”

“Yep.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause.”  

She steers the other half of the banana peel in an arc above her bowl like a speed boat.  I watch her as I take a bite of oatmeal.

“You’re my helper, Baby Girls,” I say, but even as I say the word “helper,” I cringe.

You see, it was grocery day Tuesday.  My big beginning-of-the-month, stock-up-for-a-month trip.   It's a chore, the shopping bit, with multiple small children and a pacifier left at home.  We even break halfway through Wal-Mart, choosing the check-out line with the broken conveyor belt, of course - and while I am sliding our items one by one to the cashier with spiky hair, Marie, the hard-questions girl, queries (really loudly), "Mom, is this lady a guy?" (Sigh).  We head to the van to eat turkey sandwiches and regroup before slipping back in the other door, and as we march back in, I wonder if there’s a man slouched in the back of store in front of a row of security screens, shaking his head at this harried woman who’s back so soon for more.  By the time we are finished, Nathan is slouched in his seat, nearly asleep, I’ve long quit telling Marie to stop picking her nose, and where is Willem?  When the second cashier greets us by commenting, “Look at all of Mama’s helpers!” my reply is a sarcastic one: “That depends on your definition of the word “helper.”

            And today we're baking pumpkin cake rolls and there's laundry, and beds to make yet, and Shadow wagging at me through the kitchen window, begging to be fed, and it’s nearly lunchtime.  With three helpers, pumpkin cake rolls take three times the amount of time, and we end with three times the mess...

           But in the middle of all this, I can’t shake Marie’s question.

            “Why do you love me, Mama?”

            Because, honey, you're my helper, the iron on which the Lord sharpens me when I’ve become dull and distracted (Proverbs 27:17).  One who provokes me to love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), who requires of me that I follow in a puny way the example of my Lord, setting aside myself for the sake of another.  He’s freed me in principle from the law of sin, you see, and He uses you, in your convict pjs, to free me day by day in practice.  To give me opportunity to wield myself as an instrument of righteousness (Romans 6).  To be patient.  To love.  To obey (Him) with a happy heart.

           And why does He love me?  I’m no helper.  That...that is all grace (Ephesians 2:8-10).

            And as we roll up pumpkin cakes in a cloud of powdered sugar, I pray for the grace that I need to see Him refining me, sharpening me, employing even these little ones to cause me to walk in the good works which He has before ordained, that I should walk in them.

            And who are your helpers?