Grace, Compassion, Faithfulness

What do these beautiful attributes have in common? 

Grace

Compassion

Faithfulness

Isaiah 30:18

They all describe our God!

Christmas Gatherings 2016

Our celebrations begin with Elsa's birthday a week before Christmas in our freshly decorated home.

Christmas Eve traditions have changed without a grandparents' home to gather in. Now we like to have a quiet evening with different friends each year. Usually the evening begins with a special church service as well. But this year that was saved for the next morning - Christmas Day.

Christmas Day was rainy and coated the roads with a layer of ice that is still not all gone. But quite a few of our cousins, aunts and uncles got out for a couple of hours together with Grandpa in the afternoon.

Grandpa's 100th Christmas

It had been months since Elsa and I made it over to Maren and Jason's home, so we planned a special outing into Christmas week. 

I finally finished the pair of socks (my first!) begun a year ago. Well... I had to go home, tear back a bit, and loosen the bind-off the next day. But I wore them home!

It was also a good day to get more tracing done for our LuoPad donations. (learn more here and here)

Meanwhile, Elsa made progress on her cabled sweater sleeves, and Maren made finger-puppets that are already being given out to children overseas by some of our friends.

New Year's brought together some other cousins and relatives that we rarely get to see. 

And I got to wear my new socks! ;-)

 

Then, several weeks after beginning, Maren and Jason joined us for the last several rounds of our annual, 16-round, train-dominoes game.

Christmas Greens 2016

Can you spot the bit of red among the trees? It is Mom cutting in branches for the "greening" of the house.

Two sleds full...

Meanwhile, Dad shoveled part of the driveway -- giving the tractors a Christmas break?! ;-)

Our tree came from the local co-op this year. A very lopsided growth caused the tree to fall over once decorated. Thankfully, Jason was there to catch it and save all the breakable ornaments! 

It took us half an hour to get it tipped and balanced just right in the stand, but then it stood strongly until mid-January for many weeks of enjoyment.

Winter Gear

What are those??!

Why... snowpants, of course!

In cleaning out her parents' house, Mom found these lined wool pants that had seen many years of winter wear.

O'Gulliver

You may not be a cat lover, but maybe these photos will make you smile anyway.

Gulliver (so named for showing up on our driveway in her "travels") has been a special gift for our family since 2010. Often called "Gully" or "Gull," this soft little grey and white friend is a daily source of amusement. 

Gulliver

Whether playing like a kitten, purring while basking her white tummy in the sun, or intently focused in her role as mighty hunter, we often find ourselves saying,

"Oh!... Gulliver!"

Hence the occasional Irish-flavored nickname of O'Gulliver.

Always looking for a cosy spot near her friends

A lap is preferable, but she has learned that Elsa and I
cannot hold her now - due to allergies.

Though an outdoor cat, Gully has displayed some dog-like train-ability for her visits indoors. She quickly learned that her spot is by the French doors, where she can catch the sunshine and keep an eye on the outdoors. The first cold nights in late autumn bring her meowing to the deck and climbing the glass door to get in. As winter progresses, she loses some of her manners. Instead of calling to be let out again, we catch her wandering from door to door.

But in the summer Gully rarely wants to set foot indoors. She'd rather we came out to play!

Teach Me Your Paths

Footprints in Snow

Show me your ways, O LORD,

teach me Your paths.

Guide me in Your truth and teach me

for You are God my Savior

and for You I wait all day long.

Psalm 25:4-5

Sermon from a Flower-Pot

I haven't gotten to church for many Sunday mornings now. If it were just the chronic fatigue and pain, I could push through it more often. But Elsa and I are seeing a pattern over these three years of illness. The longer into the fall and winter that we are shut indoors - away from sunshine, fresh air, and open windows - the worse our many debilitating allergy symptoms get. 

Unfortunately, as allergies and chemical sensitivities get worse, we are less and less able to be in public where scented laundry detergents and fragrance-filled personal care products (not to mention perfumes) are overwhelming in closed-up buildings. Thankfully my piano students have learned to be as fragrance-free as possible. I sure appreciate their help in keeping me able to teach them!

But, unless we drive 4 hours to a church that has a "fragrance-free service," I know of no way to avoid major set-backs from joining our church family on a Sunday morning. Elsa bravely tried attending again this week... and is paying dearly for it.

On yet another Sunday at home recently, I happened to flip back in my journals to the summer of 2015, where I had a needed reminder that God is at work... even in these years of worshiping alone at home.

On August 9th I wrote in my journal:

My pew was a slouchy chair on the deck this Sunday morning. I sank in, exhausted just from the routine of getting up, breakfasted, dressed... And a glance at the clock showed that the church service my family was attending was nearly finished already. All but my sister, who, more weak and ill than I, was resting on the couch just inside the French doors.

We were sad, to say the least. Here was yet another week in yet another month where our bodies kept us away from the teaching, worship, fellowship... the fuel of meeting together with our family - the Body of Christ. I was even unable to be around my own family this morning without earplugs to keep my brain from blowing a fuse.

All this settled into the chair with me as I leaned back and took a breath. 

Suddenly, I had to chuckle! A minature explosion nearby caught my eye as a tiny "pop!" reached my ear.

 

Have you ever seen a flower pot filled with impatiens, and looking beyond the delicate beauty of the flowers and mounds of small leaves, spotted the shiny seed pods? If you get past how they resemble a juicy worm, they are so much fun to play with! Can you get it off the plant before it splits and curls with a sudden twist in your fingers?!

It was this unexpected burst of a nearby pod spitting its seeds onto the deck that acted as the prelude to my personal Sunday morning service. Then followed the little sermon speaking to my quieted mind.

"Look! Do you see where my seed fell? On the cold, hard veneer of deck planking. What a waste, don't you think?

"I mean, a deck is a useful thing, and pretty and inviting with tables and chairs, but the only real life out here is confined to little pots. When we try to send out our seeds to spread life and beauty as we were created to do, they don't have a chance! They may soon even be swept away - just to keep the "veneer" looking fresh and clean."

Thus spoke the flower-pot. Then it left me to make the application.

Hmm... how about those times in life when we have everything under control - all swept clean, everything arranged in place, decorations set to best advantage. When God sends life-giving seeds our way, do they have any liveable space to root and grow? (Matthew 13:1-23)

These years my life seems to be getting stripped of any control, any order, any decoration. We're getting down to raw soil. Dirty, messy humus. Life often feels like rather dirty dirt.

But what better place to grow real life?!

Will I treasure, shelter, and cultivate the seeds God plants? Or will I sweep them away in an attempt to regain my "orderly life?" Or will I let all the weeds that come part-and-parcel of this raw dirt just take over and choke out God's beautiful design for this place?

Thanks, flower-pot. I'm not quite so lonely or sad anymore. Your Creator met me here where I came to Be Still.

Snow and Hardy Birds

Frost and Cold

The beauties of waking to 20 degrees (F) below zero!

A Verse for the Year: 2016

As in past years (2013, 2014, 2015), I chose a few verses to carry with me through Twenty-Sixteen.

The year began with Psalm 84:5-7.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
     who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
As they pass through the Valley of Baca,
     they make it a place of springs;
     the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
They go from strength to strength,
     till each appears before God in Zion.

Then part way through the year some verses from Lamentations became special to me in a fresh way, and I added them to my memory list.

Every time I review them or share them with other friends going through affliction, they speak fresh encouragement and truth to my heart. Lamentations 3:19-27 even formed the framework of the update I sent out to praying family and friends in November. Below is a portion of that update.

19  I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20  I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.

[Here I shared some of the current challenges Elsa and I are facing in our journey through chronic Lyme disease, etc. But I will leave that out and let you "remember" your own challenges. In Lamentations, as well as many of the Psalms, we see an honest, human response to affliction. It does not help to ignore it. But it does hurt to dwell only there. So, "remember"... then read on!]

21  Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Despite the reality of all I wrote above, it’s time to change focus. Do you need hope in your life today too? Read on!

22  Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  23  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
It is true! Because of God’s faithfulness, love, and compassion, we are not consumed.   As the apostle Paul wrote centuries ago, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed...” (2 Cor. 4:7-8)  We still wake up each morning, see God’s beautiful creation, eat from an abundant supply of food, learn and grow within the blessing of family relationships, have slowly-increasing abilities to be involved in occupations and hobbies, and experience God’s grace – even when we don’t realize it.
“Because He lives, [we] can face tomorrow.” That includes you!

24  I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.”
I am coming to see how the first four words are pivotal in this verse. To stay on track, we must “say to ourselves” the truth. We must purposely claim God as “enough” and chose to wait for Him to act in His good timing.

25  The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
When we keep our eyes on God, we see His goodness touching us in countless ways – both little and big. From the lovely colors and textures of the yarns Elsa and I get to use in our handwork business, to the great joy we get from our cat (even from a safe distance for allergies), to the perfect timing of a November blizzard, to a good report from my one year post radiation full-body scan (in the Radiologist’s words, “It’s about as clean as they get.”)...

26  it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
It is “good,” though not natural or easy. But does anything of real value come naturally or easily?!

27  It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
This is good perspective to be reminded of when we tend to feel like we are being left behind and missing out on the prime of our lives. We believe that God has something beautiful to bring out of these stretching and growing years. Something He wants to help us learn earlier than we ever could have otherwise.

I am not ready to leave these verses behind for 2017. God has so much more to teach me through them. But at this time next year, I will likely have another verse to share as well.

Do you have a verse to carry with you through Twenty-Seventeen?