holding Jesus close

Evangeline carried baby Jesus all around at Christmas time. And we carry Him with us everywhere we go when we are in Christ.

We hold him dear, because He is dear. We hold him close, because He is close. He cares for us in our desperate moments of need and in our happy moments of joy.

And we share Him with everyone we meet, because He cannot be kept secret.

With Jesus as our surest hope and strength, we do not fear the days to come, knowing that nothing happens that is apart from the work of His hand and His plan. He is good and He loves us!

With Jesus as our Redeemer, we do the little things, like eating lunch, cleaning up and carrying on. He redeems our days for His glory.

Fernando Ortega says it best. What solace for our souls:

“In the morning, when I rise

In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise, give me JesusGive me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus

When I am alone
When I am alone
When I am alone, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus

When I come to die
When I come to die
When I come to die, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus”

Eight-year-old Eliza

On this day, eight years ago, Martin Luther King Jr Day, Eliza Grace was born. She made me a mama. Her Daddy looked at her and proclaimed her to be “Eliza.” He named her well.

Here are the top ten things of her year 7, as told by her mom:

1) You like science. We joined a co-op this year and the science class is Botany, which is right up your alley. Not only do you enjoy learning about it, you’re great at reiterating what you’ve learned and replicating the projects that you’ve done in class. You’re a good teacher.

2) Hand in hand with your love of science is your continued love of nature and the outdoors, in general. You love to be outside in every season. Exploring, investigating, collecting, observing. Your attention span is endless in the outdoors.

3) Reading and being read to are greatly enjoyed by you. Right now we’re in the Chronicles of Narnia and every night you beg for one more chapter and often read a page or two ahead on your own, until I send you to bed. It’s a blessing to watch you enjoy reading.

4) You really love to sew. You get to sew in the “homeschool room” at church and have come home with some nice creations. You’d like a sewing machine very much, but for the time being have made use of your Nana’s on occasion.

5) Creativity abounds daily with you. This has been the theme since you were very little. You consume paper and art supplies like they were going out of style. Thankfully Mr. Jamison gave us that big box full of blank paper last year. Blank paper is your favorite.

6) You love to give gifts and are thoughtful in your giving. Most of your creativity is employed in the making of gifts and cards for other people. I have been abundantly blessed with your creations and artwork. You try to make the gifts meaningful for the recipient.

7) Any time you can help cook or prepare food is a happy time for you. Your older friend, Mary Jane was kind enough to give you a cooking lesson and make a cookbook for you. Cooking taps into your creative side and you love anything hands-on and messy.

8) You played soccer this summer. I dare say that soccer may not be your “thing.” But you enjoyed it nonetheless and your team ending up winning the whole shebang. I hope you hang in there and go for it again this summer. Swimming is more of a favorite for you.

9) Dance. Oh my, dance. You’ve started dance this past fall and just love it. And boy do you go for it. I’m impressed how you learn the routines quickly and your poise and confidence (nothing like your mom)!

10) You’re in choir and taking piano still. It’s a blast to watch you grow in these areas. I love watching my kids enjoy music, especially when they’re using it to praise the Lord. And you do praise Him, which makes my heart squeeze so tight it hurts, because I am so unspeakably thankful for it.

Eliza, somehow, somewhere along the line you’ve become God’s girl. It’s there in your desires and in your heart and it is a miracle. I want you to know, if you read this someday when you’re older, that it is truly the work of God and nothing else. He saves people, Eliza, by His finished work on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. He’s given you the faith to know it and love it. Thank you, God, for Jesus, and for the Spirit, which blows life into dead hearts. Keep her Lord, consecrated forever to you.

Six-year-old Seth

A six-year-old son is what I have. I remember his birth on Martin Luther King Jr Day, six years ago. It was very cold and I was so so so happy to meet him. What a gift.

Here are the top ten things of Seth’s year 5, as told by his mom:

1) Football. Football, football, football. You talk about it, dream about it, watch it, give play-by-plays. You’ve started a football card collection. You even got to trade cards with some friends. You have declared that you will be a football player when you grow up. A Defensive End, like Jared Allen. Way to dream big, in the literal size sense!

2) Numbers. You love numbers. The time, the temperature, the score, the speed limit (bummer). Also, you just like to talk about numbers and add, subtract, and multiply whatever pops into your head. You’re a clock watcher like me and I’m sorry for that.

3) You like to be on the go, out and about. You really don’t like being bored. (I try not to allow the word “bored” into our vocab, but alas.) You really enjoy people and places (North Shore pic below). You also love having people over to our house. You pounce on any chance to play with cousins and friends.

4) You played soccer this summer. You had fun, were a good sport, showed some competitive spirit, made some friends and were a blast to watch. Hopefully a repeat will be in order this summer. You also like swimming and broomball on our pond. You’ve been practicing some football moves as well.

5) You’re a baby magnet. Oh how you love little babies. Evangeline is your favorite, of course (although she’s a bit beyond baby status).

6) You’re taking Kindergarten in stride. You are a motivated worker, plowing through your work and usually enjoying it. It’s a joy to watch you read and learn.

7) You are a reliable kid when it comes to chores. Although you aren’t always complaint-free, (wow, another similarity to your mom!) you are helpful and dutiful in your tasks and I really really appreciate it. Thanks, buddy!

8) You sing in the kids’ choir at church. You like it and I love it. Nothing better than kids and music! You especially liked the Baba Yetu song from our church’s big celebration. That song was belted out in our car more times than I can count.

9) You’re getting to be a good story teller. You’re often talkative and like to recount the details of the day, in a play-by-play sort of way. For having three sisters, you seem to have mastered getting your voice heard. Although, getting you to talk about how you’re feeling is a little trickier.

10) You’re intrigued by maps. There’s a map of the world on the wall in your room and most nights before bed you name all the countries that you can remember. You tell me what you know about them: if they have enough food, if they have Bibles, if it’s hot or cold.

My dear Seth, I love how God made you. Your mind is always working on something. I pray that as you grow, your mind and your heart will work together for the cause of Christ. I hope that you will experience such love from God, such forgiveness at the cross of Jesus that you will passionately and sacrificially give your life to loving and serving others.

Oh how He loves you, Seth!

the chubby bunny kind of life

Life has been like a game of chubby bunny in the junior high youth group. Shout out to my friend Mark D. who won that game every time we played it. For those unacquainted, you shove mini-marshmallows in your mouth and whoever can say “chubby bunny” with the most marshmallows in, (none falling out) wins.

We’ve packed a lot of figurative marshmallows into our lives in the past few weeks. But, can we still say “chubby bunny” you ask? It’s more like chu-eee un-eee, but hey, close enough! We survived!

And now, chubby bunny hits the blog. Prepare yourself for a very stuffed post.

December brought our nightly advent reading by the tree with p-jams. (And an unusually headless Elianna pictured here).

We spent a memorable night out with family enjoying the supreme cuts of meat at Fogo de Chao, followed by a rousing and just-plain-great performance of Les Mesirable at the Orpheum. Here are my bro and sis-in-law. They’re funny and photogenic.

I also enjoyed the Creme Brulee. One of my faves.

Of course there were plenty of ordinary moments as well. Lots of them squeezed in there. Like fun with counting bears. Who doesn’t like bears in a muffin tin? So many sorting possibilities.

I’m doing my best to take cool pics these days. Right-o.

There’s been lunch time excitement with chocolate chips and afternoon adulation while finishing schoolwork. Just kidding about the adulation part. I just like saying afternoon adulation for the alliteration. Amazing, as always.

Eat chocolate much? No. Why no. Of course not. What would give you that idea?

Spelling is so sweet in the sunlight. (I’m sorry. I can’t stop.)

 We were all pleased with the particularly proficient piano party. Eliza performed perfectly. (I promise to stop now. I’m pathetic.)

Next came the dance recital. The girls have only been in dance for two months. They’ve loved every minute of it. Therefore, I’ve loved it too.

Phew. Lots happenin’! It’s always helpful to make lists at such a busy time. I’ve got a few list makers under my roof.

Don’t forget to make cookies! That’s a must. And some stockings too.

Next come the gifts. Oh, the gifts! We’re thankful for the many gifts this Christmas!

And there’s nothing like an exhilarating game of don’t-let-the-balloon-touch-the-floor after the gifts have been opened!

And who could guess, but more creme brulee! If ever there’s an opportunity to use a torch of any size, kitchen or otherwise, I take it. And I teach my children to do the same.

And more presents and more fun and more family and more food! And my nephew turned 16. Knock me over.

And more gifts! Crazy, I know!

If I looked this cute with Hello Kitty fashion stickers stuck to my face, you can be sure I’d have them on everywhere I went. You won’t be seeing them on me anytime soon.

And another day, another celebration, another birthday, and guess what else? More cookies! Cookies with helping hands to arrange and touch each one before they are taken to the table. As it should be.

In the midst of it all, we must make time for pretty painted nails and puppet shows!

Oh and wait! Another birthday with, wait for it, more food. Who needs a birthday cake when there’s a tower of scotch eggs to be consumed?

What’s better than ending the night with Dad’s Famous Hot Fudge made with Heavy Whipping Cream, naturally. Is there any other way?

And with NO SNOW to frolic in, we end the month by slipping and sliding on the ice in the dark with the family. Treacherous? Nah. The ice is about the same slippery in the light as it is in the dark.

About the same fall factor, I’d say. And the same fun factor.

I guess that about wraps it up. Chubby bunny, indeed.

Thanks Lord for a chubby bunny kind of life. And thanks for always making room for one more marshmallow, one more blessing, one more chaotic day, one more lesson in love.

the Bill Cosby sweater stocking project

It’s the last days before Christmas and I decided to go on a hunt for Bill Cosby sweaters.

Why? Well, we needed new Christmas stockings. I’d looked online and looked in stores and I just wasn’t excited about my options. I knew I wanted to make something, but didn’t feel like I had the time. The past few years I’ve tried to talk myself into knitting some great stockings for us, buuut.. I.. can’t.  I just can’t. I’m not sure why, because I like to knit.

I think it’s because when I realize I need to knit us some stockings (the day after Thanksgiving when the Christmas decor goes up), there isn’t enough time to get it done. So, then I’m faced with starting the stockings without the gratification of finishing them before Christmas OR starting them after Christmas. And let’s face it, after Christmas there’s just no way.

So, I saw this idea on pinterest. You take a sweater and make a stocking out of it! Perfect! So I did. Here’s my tutorial.

Start with a sweater. The more Bill Cosby-ish the better. You know you know someone with these kinds of sweaters. Gently tell them it’s time to say goodbye to the 80′s. And their sweaters. (This one is not a Bill Cosby sweater, obviously. I forgot to take pics of my best ones. Figures.)

Turn it inside out and use an old stocking as a pattern. Or free hand one. Then, trace it on the sweater.

Next, pin around your trace. Then get your machine out and sew on your line. Sew first, cut second, in order to keep it from coming unraveled, especially with a knit sweater (which was all of what I did, except this one).

Get your scissors and cut the thing out.

Turn it right side out. And viola. Presto. Stocking almost complete.

All you need is the loop at the top to hook it up with. Take a strip of sweater, fold it and sew it.

Then, sew it to the top of the stocking. Either by hand or with the machine, whatever you feel like and whatever your machine can manage, since some of the best sweater stockings are wool and really really thick. I opted by hand this time round.

Here are all the stockings I made in the eleventh hour. Finished on Christmas Eve Eve, as we say.

And here are my family’s new stockings. Hung with care and properly stuffed.

My mom says that I can “trick them out” more each year. Wha?? Hi Mom, I’m Abigail, nice to meet you. We’re from Iowa, in case you forgot, and “trick them out” isn’t in our vocab. Oh well.

And that concludes my Bill-Cosby-Sweater-Stocking-Project-of-Christmas-Eve-Eve-2011. See you next year.

the final wait

We have entered the last week of advent. We remember the wait for the birth of baby Jesus.

We remember the waiting that has already been consummated. It has been completed: Jesus did come. Yet we remember and reenact it. But we do not wonder what it’s like to really wait, as though it’s a reenacting apart from our present circumstance that we merely remember. We have our own waiting to do.

For ours is the final wait. We wait for the end, the returning, the perfecting, the new heavens and new earth. Or we wait for our own end that will take us to an early glory. Yes, we are familiar with waiting. Perhaps we are less familiar with the arriving. The actual completion of things waited for. So, we practice the completion at Christmas. We remember that the Messiah, long awaited for, finally did come. And so, we take heart in ours, the final wait.

“8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” 2 Peter 3:8,9

Thank you, Lord, for the waiting.

ministering to the depressed

David Murray has some very helpful things to say about depression and ministering to the depressed.

HT: Justin Taylor

links to make you think

Here are some links to articles that made me think. Hopefully they made me think more rightly and more biblically. Consider for yourself!

Christian Yoga? It’s a Stretch. by Mark Driscoll

What Hath Westminster to Do With Wall Street (And Its Occupiers)? by Kevin DeYoung

How to Serve “The Singles” — Ministry to Unmarried Adults in Your Local Church by Carolyn McCulley

Don’t Adopt!  by Russell Moore

Dads, Your Leadership Role is Inescapable by Doug Wilson

*I do not endorse all the views of all the writers linked to here. I simply found these articles interesting and helpful.

look back, look out: memory and mission

I love history. Biography is one of my favorite things to read. There is something about connecting the dots of the past in the present that brings significance to life.

Right now I’m reading a biography on Bonhoeffer called Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas. How blessed I am to get to look into this man’s life. Here is someone who lived over a generation ago and I can learn the lessons he has to teach. A measly stay-home mom, learning lessons from Detrich Bonhoeffer, a man who stood against darkness in the moment when it mattered, and it cost him his life.

Reading these kinds of books, remembering, or, tapping into the memory of history, reinvigorates me for life and the mission I’m called to. 

And it’s a pointer to all of the Christian life: remembering that moves us to mission.

As a Christian, I have even bigger things to remember than Bonhoeffer’s life (although his points me to the bigger things, which makes it exceedingly worthwhile).

I have the life of Jesus to remember. I have his death and resurrection. I have my sin and my sinful self nailed to a cross through Jesus to remember. I can remember that on the third day He rose again and crushed death forever.

All of my life is a rehearsing of the past in order to shape the present. Memory gives mission legs and meaning.

I remember that Jesus bore the wrath of God and defeated death forever. I remember that all authority in heaven and earth belongs to Him.

Thus my mission, “Go therefore into all the world and make disciples of all nations..”

I remember that Christ is my righteousness and that no one can snatch me out of the Father’s hand.

Thus my mission, “Be holy, as I am holy.”

Resting in what’s been done makes me able to do all He’s called me to. And I would argue that those who are immersed in the history of the Christian story, those who spend their lives remembering what God has done for them through the ages, will also be heavenly-minded, future-oriented people.

Their mission will be clear and dear to them. And they will set about their lives with an eye toward God’s Kingdom come.

Let me be that kind of Christian, Lord. Help me to look back with an eye for what’s ahead.

bloodlines documentary

Here’s a powerful 18 minute film. I finished reading The Help a few days ago and the Lord was gracious in bringing this to my attention as well.