God is Good

...Well, that's what my son meant to write when he drew this picture on the first Sunday of Advent. A few letter reversals are to be expected from a 1st grader!

What was most striking to me was not the reversal of his "d" and "b", but what he drew. At first glance it looks like your average Christmas picture drawn by a child during a church service. That's what I thought until he started explaining it to me.

Yes, there's the manger and the animals, and the wise men, and the baby Jesus with Mary and Joseph. There are also angels in the sky, and if you look carefully at the angel in the upper left hand corner you will see that he carries something in each of his hands. The angel is carrying a chalice full of wine in his left hand and the bread in his right. The angel on the right carries two crosses, one in each hand. I thought this was somewhat unusual for a nativity drawing, so I questioned my son about why he included these elements in his picture. He looked at me and said, "Mom, Jesus didn't just come to be born, he came to die for us. You have to tell the whole story!"

Indeed, son! He was born to die so that we might live.

In these moments I am profoundly grateful for the liturgical worship which shapes the thoughts, ideas, and feelings of my children. They see, hear, taste, and even sometimes smell (yeah for incense!) the presence of God. They experience the Gospel concretely every week. God is not merely an abstraction for them. He is Someone who is actually present and knowable in the liturgy. Every Sunday, before the Eucharist, they hear our priest utter the same words from the prayer book:

Holy and gracious Father: In your infinite love you made us for yourself; and, when we had fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you , in your mercy, sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.


He stretched out his arms upon the cross, and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.

On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread; and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, "Drink this, all of you: This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me." (BCP, pp. 362-363)

For my children, these are not just rote words or meaningless repetition uttered by the priest before they take communion. Rather, they declare a spiritual reality which pierces deeply into their psyche and forms their very souls -- so much so that my six year-old son, sketching a picture during Mass, doesn't fail to include the story of Good Friday and Easter in his Christmas drawing.

Household Humor

We have had some interesting conversations in our household this evening. It started with an interaction between my husband and I after he arrived home from work.

Interaction #1:

J. had had a difficult day at work. Being an empathic wife :>), I listened to him when he called on the phone and then gave him some space when he came home. Finally, in an attempt to be supportive, I asked him, "What do you need, dear?" He looked at me and said, "Honey, if I knew what I needed I would be a woman."

Interaction #2:

We have family Bible reading and prayer after dinner in our home. This evening's reading were about Jacob wrestling with God and Jacob's subsequent reunion with his brother, Esau. We discussed with them what it meant to wrestle with God, and the significance of Jacob's name being changed. Then, we reminded them of why Jacob was nervous to meet Esau after all that had happened between them. My husband, hoping to draw some modern day parallels relevant to sibling relationships, asked the children what they had learned from the lesson. Our youngest, dear Miss B., piped up and said with a totally straight face, "I learned you shouldn't listen to your mother. After all, it was Jacob's mother who told him to dress like his brother and make the soup and steal the blessing."

Thank God for humor. In the midst of much stress and chaos it is surely welcome!

A Weekend in Downieville

My family ushered in the Fall by going camping this weekend in the Tahoe National Forest. Despite the intermittent rain, we spend a glorious 48 hours up in the mountains near Downieville (a mountain-bikers version of heaven -- just ask Uncle S!) reconnecting with each other.

Leaves beginning to turn colors

J. walking behind our camping area

We went hiking on the banks of the North Yuba River. Along the way my dear little B. found a lizard which she quickly made into a pet. It was only too willing to oblige her since her hand was the warmest surface around!

J., J., and B. walking along the Yuba River

B. with her "pet" lizard

We also ran across a few frogs. J. thought this was really cool and spent lots of time trying to catch them.

One of J's frog friends

We picked blackberries and climbed hills and went on hikes. And when it rained we hung out in our trailer and played cards games and dice games (5000 and 'Stack 'Em') and read books and rested.

B. hiking up the side of a small hill, trying to keep up with R. and J.

Our camping site

It was the most restful experience I have had in a long time! Thanks be to God for the mountains!

Living the Gospel

I spent a good bit of the past three days (Thursday-Saturday) at a large, nondenominational church in a town in the foothills half-way between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. I was asked to come and teach the Lay Counseling Training Seminar that I do for other churches closer to my home.

I knew very little about this church, except that it was large church (ASA of about 2500). The woman in charge of this area of ministry in their church contacted me after being given my name by two different churches. I hadn't met her or any of the staff before I went up the hill on Thursday to start teaching. I was a little nervous about the job, not knowing them or the expectations they had for the training. And, come to find out, last week they got really nervous about me, realizing that they had hired me "blind", without the benefit of an audio tape or even seeing my written materials!

I met C. (the lady who hired me) at the church, even though the training was taking place at a different venue. I was introduced to some of the staff, one of whom was the senior pastor, though you would never have know it by his youthful appearance and casual dress. As I met more of the staff I was struck both with how friendly and how "at home" most of these people seemed to be in their own skin. There were very genuine and I found myself drawn to them.

It was rather unusual for me to feel such a kindred spirit with people whom I hardly new. Part of the reason was the setting. I am not drawn to the "mega church" structure or mentality. Their worship center is a large auditorium with orange plastic chairs and a large stage, complete with drums and large speakers and more electronic equipment that I could name. As a liturgical Christian who loves to worship in my old, stained-glass filled church with an organ and choral music and weekly Eucharist, I thought,"I could attend a concert here, but I would find it difficult to worship here."

However, as I got to know the people over the course of the three days I found myself truly awe-struck by the ways in which these people lived the gospel. I taught a group of about 40 people, most of whom were leaders of some sort in the church (elders, pastors, and lay leaders). They seemed not at all interested in how to grow their church numbers, but, they were VERY interested in how to meet the real physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the people in their surrounding community!

Most of their "programming" was geared toward helping others. They had over 20 ministries devoted to meeting the needs of hurting people, most of whom were not church going folk! I was blown away by the number of ministries they had and the way in which they appeared to integrate with ease people from any walk of life into their community. They seemed to incarnate the saying of St. Francis, "Preach the gospel at all time, if necessary, use words."

Before I left on Saturday, one of the ladies stood up and asked if the group could pray for me and for my church (the larger Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion). All 40 people in the room stood up and gathered around me to pray. I was literally brought to tears as these people prayed for me, for my parish back in the Central Valley, and for the issues of the larger Episcopal church. They prayed for unity, for repentance, and for healing in a denomination with which most of them were unfamiliar. It didn't matter. What mattered to them was that I (and the Episcopal church) was part of the body of Christ and we were hurting.

I met Jesus anew as I taught these people. I was both blessed and changed as a result of encountering them. May God bless this church and its people!

Anniversary Dinner

We were treated to a lovely anniversary dinner last night. R. and K. made chicken, spinach salad (they even made the dressing!), garlic bread, and a scrumptious chocolate raspberry cake for dessert!

Here are some pictures from the night:

The kids around the dinner table, waiting for the adults to join them!

R. and K. holding the cake they made. The red in the middle of the center heart says "14", indicating the number of years we have been married.

I'm almost back to blogland....oh, and Happy Anniversary to us!

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, though many times during this past month it might have seemed an attractive option! No, instead I have either been ill or attending to ill members of my family for the past month. We set a new family record in August -- at least one out of the five of us was ill ever day ! Some days we hit four out of five! It was not pretty. It was actually depressing and miserable.

And, added to the stress of seemingly perpetual illness were other incidental stressors such as taking care of and potty training a very active puppy, starting up homeschooling with 4 kids, preparing for my September speaking engagements, and the duties associated with functioning as the vice-chairman of the search committee at church. It was enough to push me over the edge. I felt like I was hanging on by a thread, and that thread was God's sustaining grace. My mantra was "Lord, give me enough grace to do what I need to do in the next hour." It was, obviously, a mantra I had to repeat often!

Despite the chaos and stress of the last month, I actually have blog posts which are ready to be written. Frankly, I just haven't had the time to sit down and unpack them so that I can share them. They are coming though. I just need a chunk of time and space to be alone before I can write anything of substance. So, hopefully, within a week or so I will have something up.

On a completely different note.............

Today is my and JT's 14th wedding anniversary. I am thankful to God for the incredible man I married 14 years ago today. He, more than any other human being, has incarnated the love and grace of Jesus Christ to me. I am in large part the person I am today because of my relationship with him. I am truly thankful for my husband and my marriage.

Friends from So. Cal are visiting this week and their eldest daughter (and my goddaughter), K., and my eldest daughter, R., are busy (as I type this) cooking a surprise anniversary dinner, complete with dessert, for us this evening. They already cooked us breakfast this morning :)

It has been a good day, and I have much for which to be thankful.

Hello, Molly!

This is our new chocolate lab, Miss Molly Merlot. We named her Molly, which means "bittersweet". Her arrival is truly bittersweet for us, since the only reason we have a new dog is that our former chocolate lab, Gracie, died of cancer two weeks ago.

The children are already quite attached to this new member of the family. She is truly delightful and is proving to be good therapy for us. It is a nice change to have something to celebrate rather than something to grieve!

I am sure I will be blogging about Molly in the future. Having a puppy in the house usually means a good story or two or three...

So, here's Molly!