Sleep Now, Baby

In our home, Dad does the bedtime routine with Gemma. He supervises the brushing of teeth, the reading of the Bible, and the bedtime prayers. Matt was away at a retreat over the weekend, so on Friday and Saturday night, I put Gemma to bed. I made sure her teeth were brushed, the Bible was read, the prayers prayed. And then she said it. "Sing to me."

Since Gemma was a baby, Matt, and I on the occasions that I put her to bed have sung a lullaby to her:

Sleep now, baby, don't you cry

Angels guard your bed tonight

Keeping you in Jesus' eyes

So sleep, sleep tonight.

Always the same song, always part of the bedtime ritual. I was surprised when she asked me to sing it, because Dad always does. She says Dad, not Daddy, and Mom, not Mommy. Apparently it's babyish to say Mommy and Daddy when you are seven. And yet, she still wants to be sung to. By me.

I don't have a nice singing voice like my husband. It's not pretty when I sing. Little children don't notice that kind of thing the way older kids do, or maybe they just don't care. Gemma still likes the way I sing, but I can't help but wonder how much longer she will. Has she already asked me to sing her to sleep for the last time?

Lullabies are babyish, though I would never tell Gemma so. I treasure this remaining fragment of my tiny child, this reminder of the baby she once was, as I watch her grow up so quickly, too quickly, right before my eyes, because one day, one day she will wake up, go about her day, and go to bed without asking to be sung to.

As parents, we remember the firsts: the first step, the first word, the first day of school, but we don't remember the lasts: the last time she rides in the cart a the grocery store, the last time she wants to hold my hand in public, the last time she wants to be sung to sleep. It's probably because those moments are so ordinary, regular, that we take them for granted, not realizing that someday, there will be a last moment. It's bittersweet, maybe a bit more bitter than sweet. And yet, I wouldn't trade those lasts for the world. Watching your child grow up is a beautiful thing, even if there are secret tears hidden behind the proud smiles.



And I Quote...

""It is such an obvious truth, but one so easily forgotten: God does not exist for me. It's a shock to remember and a hard thing for me to grasp, but God has a bigger plan than merely my comfort, a greater concern than simply my ease. 'I'm taking you to (heaven),' He tells us, 'where every tear will be wiped away, every problem will be solved. But in the meantime, the (world) needs to see than I am the Lord. And that will happen when they see you make your way through deep waters because I am with you.' " -Jon Courson

Oh, Happiness

Oh, happiness,

There is grace enough for us

And the whole human race!

Friend or foe,

Stranger or kin,

All who come

Begin again.

Hard or frail,

Rich or poor,

All in need

Need fear no more

Such a thing to give away.

Oh, happiness,

There is grace enough for us

And the whole human race!

All regrets,

Let go, forget.

There's something that

Mends all of it.

Sound the church bells,

Let them ring,

Let them ring,

For everything can be redeemed.

We can be redeemed,

Oh, all of us.

Oh, happiness,

There is grace enough for us
And the whole human race!

Lyrics by David Crowder

You Capture: Happy

Sharing

Some fun photos

of my two favorite people

sharing ice cream cones,

 smiles,

and laughter.

And I Quote...

C.S. Lewis:

"If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought the most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this."

How Can I?, Genesis 39, Week 2

Joseph, sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, finds himself a servant of the high ranking Egyptian official, Potiphar. Joseph does well and proves himself so trustworthy that he becomes the head servant of the household, in charge of all Potiphar has. It so happened that Potiphar wasn't the only one who thought the handsome new head servant was pretty wonderful. His wife took notice of Joseph too, and not in a good way. She lusted after him, pursued him, tempted him to have an affair with her.

And now Joseph really proves his outstanding character: He tells her no. No, my master trusts me and he's given me everything but you, his wife. I just love what he says next, "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"

Take note of what he doesn't say:

-I don't want to get caught.

-I don't want to sin against my master.

-I don't want to lose my position.

-I don't want to lose my reputation.

-I don't want to disappoint my father.

Joseph's one concern is that he do what is right in God's eyes. I think that a lot of times our motivation to restrain ourselves from sin is not as pure as Joseph's was.

We refrain from sin because we don't want to get caught, lose our reputation, disappoint other's, and reap the consequences of sin. This is not wrong, per say, but it's not the right attitude to have about sin either. We should restrain from sin because we want to please God. We should be more concerned with what He thinks of us than what our pastor, or our spouse, or our friends think of us. So often it's just the opposite.

A genuine love for God should result in a life that genuinely tries to please Him. We don't want to sin and take advantage of the grace He has bestowed upon us. We don't want to do the things that break the heart of God. We want to do what is right because it makes God smile. May my response to temptation be like Joseph's, "How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"

A sneak peek...

into our week: we go to the library once a week and fill up two bags of books! 

Dizzy

When you look up

at this hanging art

and spin around in circles

you get a little dizzy.

Not that I would know!



You Capture: Circles

The Matriarchs, Genesis 30 & 35, Week 3

Sarah was barren. Rebekah was barren. Rachael was barren. Notice a pattern here? The favored wives of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) had trouble conceiving children. It's a little ironic, considering they were to be the mothers of a people too numerous to count. Why was this so? It wasn't because they were cursed or did something wrong, as common culture of the time believed. I was because they were blessed.

Blessed? Yes, and here's why: they were able to see God providing for and working in them by making them wait before giving them children. Their children were, in the truest sense, gifts from God.

The lessons that these matriarchs learned through years of barrenness were so valuable: They learned God is stronger than physical limitations. That though their best efforts failed, (Ishmael, Rachael and the mandrakes) God can do the impossible. They saw that God answers prayer.

If these women hadn't had trouble conceiving, they wouldn't have sought God out, and in the process, knowing Him more. God said through the prophet Jeremiah that when we call upon God, He will answer, when we seek God out with all our hearts, we will find Him.

When we seek God out and allow Him to work in our lives as the matriarchs did, God will give us the desire of our heart. It may not be possessions, or success, or children though, because the true desire and longing of every human heart is God Himself. Proverbs says that "desire fulfilled is a tree of life", and when our desire for God is fulfilled, our lives will produce vibrant, abundant fruit, just like Sarah, Rebeka, and Rachael produced offspring for their family trees.

Sometimes though, we are not satisfied with God Himself, and the things He gives. We forget God, taking for granted the things He as done and expect more, and more. This was Rachael's problem. God remembered her, opened her womb, and gave her a son. Instead of giving him a name like Judah, which means 'praise', or Simeon, which means 'heard', or 'God heard', as her sister did in acknowledgement of what God had done, Rachael named her son Joseph, which means 'He will add'. Put into a more modern phrasing, it basically means, 'Give me more'. Not exactly an attitude of gratitude.

Rachael's desire for more was fulfilled, but it cost her greatly. She did indeed become pregnant again and have another son, but she died in childbirth. Before dying, she called the child Ben-Oni, which means 'son of my sorrow'.

When we insist on more, refused to be satisfied with God's gifts, and make a way to get what we want, it's only going to produce sorrow, and ultimately, if we keep living in that manner, it's going to bring spiritual death, as it brought physical death to Rachael.

The lesson to take away from this is to trust in the Lord. His plans are good! He'll provide all that you need and meet the desire of your heart with Himself. As you wait on Him and His timing, you'll find yourself blessed, just like the matriarchs.

And I quote...

"Men are never duly touched and impressed with a

conviction of their insignificance, until they have

contrasted themselves with the majesty of God."

-R.C. Sproul

Monopoly

Monopoly

is a great way 

to spend a cold

Sunday afternoon,

even if your seven year old daughter

who has never played before

beats the pants off you.

The Key

What do you do

when you come across

a locked door?

You keep knocking until someone gives you the key.

"Faith is the key! God's promise is given to us as a free gift.

And we are certain to receive it if we have faith like Abraham's."

Romans 4:16

You Capture: Doorway

And I quote...

A.B. Simpson:

"We find in all great results of faith in God's Word that it was connected with decisive and courageous action, and it was in the doing that the blessing came. Abraham's faith would have been an idle dream, if he had not done something that involved the risk of his whole life to Him whom he believed."

Because...

Sometimes it's nice

to see the person

behind the camera.

Right Back Where I Started From, Week One, Genesis 12-14

In Genesis chapter 13 we see Abram making a return trip from Egypt. Instead of staying in the land God had sent him to, he had gone "down to Egypt" to escape a famine. In the Bible, going down to Egypt is always symbolic of going down into sin.

Before the famine hit, Abram was in the land of Canaan, the place God and told him to dwell. He was seeking God out, making altars and sacrifices to the Lord while there. It's interesting that when he went down to Egypt he stopped doing those things. It's also interesting that what Abram found in Egypt was trouble in the form of almost losing his wife, from whom Abram's heir and beloved son would be born, and who would be a patriarch of the Jewish nation from whom the Messiah would come. This seems to me an attack from Satan, an attempt to foil God's ultimate plan for salvation in by leading Abram to sin.

Why did Abram leave the land that God had promised and sent him to? Because there was a famine. He must have been thinking, "There's no food here, but there's plenty of food in Egypt, so I'll go there." It seems logical, but it was a mistake. When things got hard, he left the place God had put him and set off on his own. This was one of those times when Abram decidedly lacked faith.

What he could have, should have done was remember this: 'God has placed me here and promised me many descendants, so He must have a plan.' Then he should have sacrificed to the Lord with a cry for help and direction.

We make the same mistake as Abram did. When life heats up and difficulties arise, instead of crying out, "Lord, help! What do I do?" we take matters into our own hands, try to solve our own problems, and fix things ourselves. It's a mistake because our own ideas and solutions will invariably lead us off the path God has for us. God's path for us will lead us toward Him, but any other path will lead us away from Him where we'll find ourselves in Egypt, sinning.

Abram didn't experience God while he was in Egypt, there was no mention of altars or sacrifices made, conversations or meetings with God. It wasn't until he went back to Canaan to the place where he had made his last altar that he began to experience God again. We too need to leave our sin behind and return to the place of seeking God. This is repentance, turning our back to sin, running away from it and running back towards God.

It was after Abram returned that God renewed His covenant with Abram, giving him Canaan, peace with his neighbors, and incredible victory in battle, and also where he meets King Melchizedek of Salem, priest of the Most High God who came out to Abram offering him bread and wine. Who was this king? Once again, the literal meaning of names is an important key to our understanding: Melchizedek means Righteous, Salem means Peace, so King Melchizedek was the Righteous King of Peace, who was also God's priest.  This is most likely a Christophaney, Christ taking on a human body and appearing to man in Old Testament times before His birth in Bethlehem. Hebrews 7:1-3 further clues us into this. Abram's interactions with Melchizedek is a foreshadowing of Jesus, our High Priest forever, who offered His body and blood for us, as Melchizedek offered bread and wine, the communion elements, to Abram.

It was like God was say, "Abram, you've turned from your sin and are ready to walk with Me. I'm going to cleanse you now and bless you. I am going to walk with you." And He says the exact same thing to us, "You've sinned, but you're ready to give it up to walk with Me. Come, take my body and my blood, and be forgiven. Let's walk together.

A Winter Walk...

in Southern California anyway.

And I quote...

"This is the glory of true holiness; it hides us in the presence of our God. This is the true meaning of godliness. This is the true secret of divine holiness. It is not mere Christ-likeness, but it is Christness--Christ in us. The only thing that can meet the requirements and expectations of God's law in the Spirit, the nature, the very life of His dear Son reproduced in us."  -A.B. Simpson

On The Road Again, Week One, Genesis 12

Chapter 12 of Genesis starts the story of Abram and thus, the Jewish nation. Abram was hand picked for greatness by God for His purposes. Abram, whose name was later changed by God to Abraham, is know as the Father of Faith. He was a flawed man, making many mistakes. At times, this father of faith displayed a decided lack of faith in God. yet God still used him, ultimately calling him faithful. Perhaps another time we'll go through some of Abram's failures and triumphs, but today, let's focus on his first incredible step of faith.

God spoke to Abram, an idol worshiper, and called him to a new life. He told Abram to leave his home, his family group, the place he grew up, and go to a land God would give to him, with the promise that He would make Abram's descendants into a great nation.

So Abram packed his bags and left, seeking out God and His promises. That had to have take quite a bit of courage. I wonder what doubts plagued him? I wonder if he almost didn't go, if his family and friends tried to dissuade him? Though Abram delayed his departure to the tune of 25 years while waiting for his father to die, ultimately he left, and found on his journey of faith that God remained faithful to him, even when he did not remain faithful to God.

We too are called out like Abram was, called to leave our old way of life, habits, unhealthy relationships, sin, behind and embrace the journey of faith God has set before us. Sacrifice is involved in leaving, just as it was for Abram as he left his loved ones and familiar way of life, but as we turn our backs on what was as step out in, we find that we are no longer walking alone. God has joined us on our journey; He is walking beside us and directing our path. He remains on that path too, and doesn't leave it when we lose faith and stray from it. He stays when we stray and calls us back to Him.

He is the faithful God who, when we have lost faith and wandered far from Him, left His thrown in heaven to seek after us and put us back on the road of faith.

2010, A Year In Photos: Non-People

My favorite non-people photos of 2010, month by month:

January Button Jar

February I {heart) U

March Walkin' on a Rainbow

April Roller Skates

May Empty Bottle

June Brushes

July Reflection

August Inchworm

September Dead Flower

 October Black Eyed Susans

November: Fallen Leaves

December Christmas Reflections

You Capture: 2010 Top Ten