Saturday, April 28, 2012

Calvary nursery mural

Another project completed today.

The letters are vinyl, by my Aunt Missy.  Other credit is due: to my sister Michelle, for suggesting a birch tree, and most of all, to B.J., for playing "Mr. Mom" for a couple of Saturdays while I painted.




Hmmm...now I'm in the mood to paint something for our new home...but I'd better not get ahead of myself!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Busiest Boy on the Block


One more reason I've not been packing - I wanted to sew a quilt for Nathan first since he'll probably move to the twin-sized trundle below Will's bunk once we move.  All the fabric came from my mom-in-law's attic last fall - thanks, Mom! - and the pattern I used was a simple one, called "a disappearing nine-patch" or something like that.

The front:



The back:


The last original 9-patch block I stitched in the lower right-hand corner on the back, with these words:

"Busiest Boy on the Block"
made for my Little Man
April 2012


Phew!  Always nice to complete a big project!  I really like quilts, and I've learned something new with each one I've made.  But don't look too close - I'm no perfectionist.  (If I was, I'd never finish!  :-)

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

encore

And so I was up early this morning...




on going home...

So lots of people have asked if I'm busy packin'.  I say, "Slowly," or note the day I boxed up a bunch of empty canning jars and lids (the one thing I was sure I wouldn't need before the end of May), and B.J. came home that same afternoon needing some for a science experiment at school.

Truth is, I've stonewalled.  I've reached the point where packing and moving seem so overwhelming and so inevitable that I've not packed a single thing for some time.  These lovely warm days I'd rather cut the grass with Nathan dozing on my lap or lounge by the kiddie pool, willing time to stand still.  Instead of anticipating the brick house on Birch, I want to stay here and sink my roots into the ground with all the shrubs we've planted over the years.

Which brings to my mind another home awaiting me.  A place I'll go without having to pack anything up, a mansion to which my move is inevitable, the date, non-negotiable, and where, no doubt, I'll be overwhelmed by many things beautiful and new.

And I thank God that this move is moving me to see that there's no place here to plant my roots, that I'm just a stranger here, passin' from one place to the next.  Oh, that I may never loiter on my heavenly journey!

Grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.


Saturday, April 21, 2012

junior/senior banquet

Yep.  At 30.  One of the perks of being a high school teacher (or his wife).



Which means we got to enjoy the evening with my lovely little sister, Anna, her sweetheart, Dean, and whole passel of really neat kids.
(I know, they're not "kids," but when you're pregnant with #5 and playing laser tag with a bunch of them, they seem like kids.  ;-)






Thursday, April 19, 2012

Huntin' Season


They come when the first dandelions,
tickled awake by sudden shoots of green,
heave their yellow heads
beneath the mighty breeze
that echoes in the pale arc of the sky.

They come Sunday afternoons,
perched on their off-roads,
to paw the ditches like bear just roused from rest.

There is the splintering of brittle stalks;
the maul of the grass;
the snap of thick stems, sheltered cool and close to the earth;
asparagus, pungent in the palms.

Our children peer at them as we pass
on our way to the evening service.
They wave gloved hands and swerve south,
like salmon, sprinting upwind.


three stooges...and other random stuff

 Some cousins came to play yesterday...a gloriously sunny, springy day.  I hauled out my camera.


 



Miss Moriah
Marie loves Kara



Consider the lilies...

One sweet girl...
and one very patient puss.






This boy's after butterflies.
Who needs a bug net when you've got an ice-cream bucket?



Not bad...ten butterflies in the cage (we let them go before supper).


Hey, Shadow.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

I Corinthians 5


            Have you ever been cautioned not to judge another?  Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 7:1, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged,” are frequently quoted.  Perhaps that text came to your mind when we noted that in I Corinthians 4 Paul warned against judging others, reminding the Corinthians that when the Lord comes, He “will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts.”
But Jesus’ words in Matthew 7 are usually quoted without their context – Jesus does not teach that one must never judge; rather, He teaches that in order to judge another, one must have a proper self-perspective.  “Hypocrite!  First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”  And although Paul prohibits judging the motives or eternal destination of others in I Corinthians 4, in I Corinthians 5 he commands the church at Corinth to pronounce severe judgment on a member of their congregation who was leading an openly sinful lifestyle.
                The church in Corinth was tolerating a member who had married his stepmother.  Paul notes that incest of that sort was not endured even by pagans of their day, yet the Corinthians were proud that this person maintained his place in their congregation.  At first glance, this may seem like a rather far out situation.  But think, for example, of the churches in our day who permit homosexuals to be members, or even clergy.  Even some who are not Christians abhor homosexuality, yet those churches are proud, touting themselves as if they have a more enlightened view of the Scriptures.  Perhaps they cite the account of the woman taken in adultery from John 8, declaring that as sinners they are not worthy to judge another, to throw any stones.
In contrast, Paul judges this man in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  His pronouncement?  That he be excommunicated from the church.  Paul puts it this way, “’Deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”  Excomunnication puts one outside the fellowship of the church, and into the world, of which Satan is prince (John 12:31-32).  Note, though, that Paul’s goal in putting the man outside the fellowship of the church is not his destruction; rather, Paul desires the saving of his soul, desires that he wake up like the prodigal son in the pig sty who returned to his father and confessed his sin.  Likewise, Jesus did not condemn the adulterous woman, but neither did he allow her to remain in her sin: “Go,” he commanded, “and sin no more.”  The church receives the repentant sinner as the father received his son, celebrating: “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” Luke 15:24.
Do you remember also from chapter 4 how Paul noted that he and the apostles were viewed as scum, the refuse of the earth?  I promise you, the church that judges the public sins of its members will be viewed by many as scum, refuse. 
Paul has a second purpose in excommunicating the unrepentant man: the preservation of the godly living of the other members of the congregation.  “Do you not know,” Paul queries, “that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?”  Later, in chapter 15, he writes, “Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits.”  Paul refers to the Passover feast to illustrate his point.  On the first day of that week-long celebration, the Israelites were commanded by God to put all leaven out of their houses (Exodus 12).  That had to take place before they could celebrate the Passover.  Likewise, New Testament saints cannot celebrate the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ while tolerating wickedness.
It’s easy to shake our heads at ungodliness around us while ignoring our own sins or the sins of fellow believers.  But we ought to be more concerned with sin inside the church than on the outside.  Paul concludes chapter 5 by making a distinction between those who are immoral within the church and those who are without.  He acknowledges that those who love the Lord will come into contact with immoral people in this life.  It is impossible not to.  God, he writes, will judge them.  But we must judge those within the church who are living openly sinful lifestyles.  Earlier I noted homosexuality; what about those in the church who are unbiblically divorced and remarried?  When is the last time you’ve dared to stand up when the alcohol gets out of hand at a gathering and noted that God does not fellowship with drunkards?  We have this command: “Put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Back from CO

We are back from Colorado.  I didn't take many photos again - seems my hands were usually too full of children for that.  But there are a few.

My first glimpse of a realio, trulio plateau.

Saturday at a mountain park with friends.
Sweet Carlyn.
You just can't beat our Nath's smile.
Nathan and Alexis.
The road into school and church.

While there, we saw in person the house which we are in the process of purchasing.  We drove by first on Thursday evening, on our way in, and all I could see was how close the houses there are to one another and to the street.  I wrote this Thursday, in the middle of the night, while everyone else was sleeping:


A Country Girl Moves to Town

The houses on our street line
up like teeth once in braces

like the sides of a corset
cinched along the spine.


Friday morning I brought to school B.J., Leah, and Willem (kindergarten round-up was held that day).

Willem with his teacher, Mrs. Lara Moore.
I stayed for opening devotions and all-school singing, and it’s when Jay started reading Psalm 121, I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help? that I started spilling over, thankful that I was in the front row.  When I left, I decided to do my best to find the house back myself – after all, if I’m going to live here, I might as well get over my fear of traffic and city driving.

So I did.  I found it and parked across the street for a little while.  I don’t know how I missed it Thursday, but the front yard of the place is dominated by one of the most beautiful trees I’ve ever seen (and Saturday I saw the backyard, bordered by lilacs and a garden space, with roses and bulbs sprouting everywhere).  That tree, silly as it sounds, was an answer to prayer for me, a reassurance that I’ll be alright, that our Father will care for us here, too.



An Omer of Manna

A cloud shades the front yard of the
red brick house on Birch: crab apple blossoms
in full bloom, white.  Fragrances floats
up like incense,
and
petals
rain
down:
bread
from
heaven,
angel’s food, to the full.