Why I Love Christmas...

Well, that has many answers, and many reasons. I could give you the Sunday school answer and say I love it because it is Jesus' birthday. That however, would be only a partial truth. I love Christmas because it is the day that a virgin gave birth to the Creator of the universe in a filthy stable and angels filled the sky and nearly scared those poor shepherds half to death. I love it because on that day the curse of Adam began coming undone. That some time later, the king Herod was so terrified by the birth of a baby and an unexplainable star in the sky that he had a mental breakdown. That wise men made fools of themselves to kneel before a toddler and that the Son of God was being raised by Jews from Nazareth. I love that He grew up and became the Savior of His people on that cross of wood and rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father and sent His Spirit and the His Kingdom is coming on earth as it is in heaven. I love that Saint Nicholas gave to the poor and now Coca-Cola has a chubby suited version of him on their soda cans. I love that candy canes are red and white and Christmas trees smell like a forgotten winter and that malls and movie theaters and billboards and signs scream the good news all in the name of a nice tradition. I love Christmas because it is an inescapable reality that Christ has come and conquered and that He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I love it for it's carols and gifts, it's incessant joy and piles of wrapping paper. I love that when it leaves it will comes again and Easter is on it's way. I love that it never leaves and it never will. I love that the broken, the busted, the filthy all made it into the story and was redeemed by the Son of God so that Christmas is Charlie Brown and "sore afraid", and manger scenes and family baking days, and shopping and laughter and new socks. I love how "Peace on Earth" is heard all around and yet people have no idea where that peace truly comes from. Yet when they sing "Joy to the World" they feel it for just a moment. That's why I love Christmas. This messy, broken and twisted world was redeemed by it's perfect, humble Creator and now every December 25th, the whole world sings about it, even when they try not to. Merry Christmas. Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Friendship...

My whole life I have had many friends come and go in and out of my story. I have lost some and gained some for one reason or another, each one leaving a line on the pages of my story, some a paragraph, some a chapter. There are only two that I have remained close with my whole life, and one new close friend. One lives far away and the other, well she is my best friend and I see her all the time. Our friendship has had its up and down seasons, but the one thing that our families have taught us over the years is that friendship is not the beginning and end all of life. Christ, His bride the church and His Kingdom are what our lives are to be built around. I know for certain that if my best friend and I had based our lives or our joys on our friendship, we would no longer be friends. It is so easy for us to make our families, our friendships or any relational thing an idol. My best friend is reliable, always there, funny, makes excellent coffee, can draw while I have zero ability to make a round circle. She is a much better piano player than I am and she is very tall and skinny. I am neither of those things. So you are probably thinking, Why are they best friends? Well, if we based our friendship off those kinds of things we wouldn't be. I would be jealous of her tallness and artsiness and she of my writing and academic mindset. Our friendship is based on our shared commitment to God, His Church and His Kingdom. I know that her part to play in His story is playing the piano for church, making beautiful art and amazing coffee and being an excellent girlfriend to her godly boyfriend of whom I very much approve. She knows my part in His story is to teach children, help administrate things at church, write blogs and books and study Latin. God has given each of us a part to play in His story, and graciously gave us our friendship to mutually encourage one another. Best friends, or friends in general are not meant to be the basis of your life. They are not meant to be your everything and all. Jesus is our everything and all. He is the basis of our life. His church and His Kingdom should be our main priorities. Friendships fall apart and severely disappoint when the expectation is laid on them to fill a void. They are not meant to be that. True relationships and friendships spring from rightly ordered loves and lives. We will lose these things and be truly sad and lonely if we idolize our friendships. We should encourage and fight for our friends, but Jesus and His first things must remain our first things. My best friend and I do not have it down perfectly, but we try to keep our lives ordered properly and when we do, our friendship works as it should. If we are not, well it's not so pretty. So order your lives according to Christ and His Kingdom, not your friendships and relationships. Then you will find what true friendship is.

Just a Poem...

Here is a poem I wrote recently. Blessings on your day!

Jesus Saves

Chaos rages through man’s heart

defying You how great Thou Art

searches to erase Your face

You creator of all space

Folly of man and wicked hearts

us from You it did part

Yet not alone You leave us here

on Your majestic blue green sphere

You Yourself Your Son came down

to win His bride by a thorny crown

to give His love and redeem the lost

even though He knew it’s cost

In our broken state You bled

on Golgotha Your blood was shed

from hell and tomb You rose again

and death no longer rears it’s head

King of Heaven You I praise

The answer profound and simple

Jesus Saves

You are my King, Savior, and God

In my heart Your Spirit plods

Hold my faith till my last breath

when I enter Your sweet rest

and one day rise whole and new

to forever feast and give praise to You

Praise the Lord!

Starting Tuesday I will be blogging poetry, thoughts or Scripture everyday. My schedule will take on it's fall routine so I will have time to do this. But for today, I will leave you with one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 150.

Let Everything Praise the Lord

150 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens!
² Praise him for his mighty deeds;
    praise him according to his excellent greatness!

³ Praise him with trumpet sound;
    praise him with lute and harp!
⁴ Praise him with tambourine and dance;
    praise him with strings and pipe!
⁵ Praise him with sounding cymbals;
    praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

The Example of our Savior...

Sorry I have not blogged in so long. The last week and a half have been very busy and full. Yet, today I find I have time to sit down and write about some things that I have been meditating on. In my devotions I have been reading through the Gospel of Matthew. As I read this I have been struck by two amazing things about Christ. Firstly is just how patient, humble, gracious and kind He was to His disciples, the weak, the sick and the sinners. To see how gracious He is with sinners has been such an encouragement, since I am a sinner, yet by His grace He has saved me. Secondly it struck me how bold, righteous and straightforward He was with the Pharisees and hypocrites. He had no shame in proclaiming the truth to them, and He had no problem enduring their persecution. It's easy for us to think that this is just what He needed to do. Yet remember, He is God, and He was being mocked and being made fun of by the very people He had spoken into being. Can you imagine? In my depravity, had I His power, I probably would have given them some horrible disease or something. Yet He did not. He continued to warn them of the judgement that would come if they continued on this path of self righteousness and he continued to preach to them. Even on the Cross, He asked the Father to forgive them. That brings tears to my eyes when I think of it. He is Love incarnate, He is Mercy and Grace. I am daily overwhelmed by this. Man chose to try to be God rather then to trust God, for this we deserve eternal damnation. God is just and right to punish us for our sin. Yet, because He loves His people, He paid the price for us and saved us from sin and ourselves. We must daily preach the Gospel to ourselves and daily drink in His Word. It is too easy for us in our depravity to forget, feel as if we must work for our salvation, or be sucked in by worldly thinking.  The Bible tells us that we are to follow Christ's example. So this means in light of just these two reflections  from Matthew, that we follow His example of patience, humility, graciousness and kindness to one another, the world, the weak and the sinner. Yet, we also must not be ashamed to speak the truth boldly. We have been given the truth, we should not hide it. We cannot be afraid to preach the Bible, stand up against self righteousness and evil; and we must also be willing to endure persecution and forgive those who persecute us. Our story ends in victory! Death has no hold over us and we have nothing to fear because of Christ. Live each day for His glory, give thanks for His good gifts and live boldly and humbly for Him.

Singing Out Loud...

I love singing. I am not especially good at it, but I love it nonetheless. I find myself singing many different kinds of songs. I was raised in a home by a father who loves 80's rock. I know a lot about this genre, and I love it almost as much as he does. My mother grew up in Virginia so naturally she loves country, so do I. I also enjoy some of the contemporary music of my generation. However, I was also raised in a home saturated in Psalms, hymns and Spiritual Songs. I often find myself singing Psalm 98 which is in four parts, and attempting to sing all four at once. Not a very good idea, but it's fun to try. I was struck some weeks ago by how easy it is for me to break out in Van Halen, Shania Twain, Taylor Swift, Matt Nathanson or Shinedown, but is it that easy for me to break out in Psalms? Do I have those words and those songs ready on my lips to praise my Savior? I hope so, but I know I don't as much as I should. He deserves all the praise I can offer. I should not be ashamed to hum those tunes or sing them out loud. If I am ashamed of Him, what does that say of my view of Him? He is my Creator, Savior, Father, Brother, Friend. He is my God and when I refuse to sing to Him I know my heart is in the wrong place. Now singing the above list is certainly not a sin, but it should not be my primary song. My song should be one of praise to my Savior. So in church, at work, home, school, in the car or in your room, do not be afraid to sing out loud. For He was and is not ashamed of you. Sing out loud to Him everyday. He deserves your praise and song. Be like David who was not ashamed to dance and sing before God and all the people of Israel.

Psalm 1

I will be blogging some thoughts on Psalm 1 in the coming week. So for now here is Psalm 1 for you to meditate on.

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

1 Blessed is the man
    who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
    nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
² but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree
    planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
    and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
⁴ The wicked are not so,
    but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
⁶ for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.

Creation and its singing...

I think it is easy for us to be so caught up in the busyness of our lives, that when we leave our homes we see nothing but the task ahead. Rarely when a bird flies across the skies, or when the wind blows through the trees, do we stop and listen to the creation sing. God made this world, He crafted it with His Word and he made us in His image. Everything in creation tells us something about our God. When I look at the sea, I am reminded of His vast power, and majestic glory. When I look at the clouds or a sunset, I see the artistry of my God. Yet, most of the time I don't stop and listen to the creation sing. It sings around us all day long, beckoning us to remember our Creator. The ground was cursed because of Adam's sin, and thorns arose because of Adam's sin. I have often heard my Dad say that the creation mediates the curse to us, it stands on God's side against us. That's why viruses attack us, bugs bite us and lions eat us. That is also why Jesus took a crown of thorns upon His head to the cross beginning the reversal of all this. One day, bugs won't bite us and I will finally get to hug a lion and not lose my arm. The creation however, is also a gift. The beauty of the oceans, the majesty of the Sequoia trees, the breathtaking pounding of waterfalls, the peacefulness of a slight breeze and the singing of birds, should remind us daily that Christ has conquered. We believe that creation is singing the glory of God, and history is moving forward to a day when everything shall be at peace. So you may not be able to hug a lion when it's awake yet, but you can listen to the birds, pet mana rays at Seaworld and be baffled by the tides in the ocean as you swim in it's vastness. So give thanks for creation, an amazing gift from God. Be grateful that God is rolling back the curse, so that one day we and the creation will be at peace. And while your at it, go listen to Creation Sings by Keith and Kristen Getty. It will encourage your soul today. Blessings in Christ and on your day

Encouraging....

Psalm 100:

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
²      Serve the Lord with gladness!
     Come into his presence with singing!

³ Know that the Lord, he is God!
    It is he who made us, and we are his;^[a]
    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
    and his courts with praise!
    Give thanks to him; bless his name!

⁵ For the Lord is good;
    his steadfast love endures forever,
    and his faithfulness to all generations.

Plot Twists...

Sunset on Vacation in Louisiana

Most days I wake up with sunlight shining through my white curtains, grab a cup of coffee and sit in the living room and type my blog post. Then I put on my paint stained work clothes and Mom and I start working on Wounded Wood Creations. We make beautiful reclaimed wood signs, chalkboards and caddies. Then in the afternoons I work on my children's fiction book about a boy named Jack. Jack gets sent to England for the summer to stay with his great Auntie Eloise. And that's all you get. Maybe someday I'll put up some snippets. Anyhow, this is not what I imagined my life would be like when I was younger. From the ages of eight to fourteen I spent three hours a day training on the ice rink. The yells of my coaches ringing out, "Faster," "higher!" I was determined to become a professional ice skater. One day however that changed. I was in practice for my first competition. I was skating through my routine, my music blasting through the loud speakers of the rink, everyone watching, coaches standing by. I landed my first jump and headed towards the other end of the rink and went into a spiral. Now a spiral is where one leg goes up behind you really high, arms out and you glide on one leg. I had executed them a thousand times. But today a chunk of ice was there and it made contact with my toe pick. When I slammed into the ice, I knew that I was done. I never regained my confidence after that fall, and when the competitions began to press my Sabbath day convictions I knew it was time to go. My head coach died not long after I quit, and that sealed it for me. For years I had no idea what I wanted to do. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that God showed me. I wanted to teach, and through crazy providence, I was able too. For two years I taught at a small private school and I was sure that that was what I was supposed to do. Then again God made it clear that was not His plan for me. Once again  had no idea what I was going to do. Then God showed me writing and Wounded Wood Creations. It's amazing how God writes our stories. I have spent many nights worried about my future, when all along God had a beautiful plan for my life. I know that Wounded Wood Creations and writing won't always be what He has for me. Yet, today it is and I am grateful for it. I encourage all of you to trust in His story writing and to enjoy where He has you today. Glorify him in whatever you are doing. If you don't know what you are doing pray that He will show you. Each day He gives you an opportunity to live on His stage and in His story. So live in it, and dance in the grace of His providence and trust that he loves you and your part is the perfect part He has written for you.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 says,

 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

² a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
³ a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

New Business!

Mom and I have started a new business! Check out our current inventory!
http://woundedwoodcreations.blogspot.com/

Psalm 23...

Today I will not blog about one of my poems. Instead I will share with you a poem by the Great Poet. Yesterday we sang a version of Psalm 23 in church entitled: The King of Love my Shepherd Is. The first verse sings this, "the King of love my Shepherd is, whose goodness faileth never. I nothing lack if I am His and He is mine forever." Now the text in Scripture says, "The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want." We memorize and even sing these words often without really taking the time to ponder what they mean. "I nothing lack." or "I shall not want." We spend our lives complaining about what we lack or what we want. We often sit in church on Sunday and half listen to the preacher, maybe even thinking about what our church lacks that we want it to have. We go to work and complain about our hours, or our pay. We complain about our cars, our clothes, our homes and the list goes on. We are a discontent people. Yet the psalmist says, "I shall not want." We have been given a place in the Eternal Kingdom of God. We have been given the right, through the blood of the Son of God to be called His children. We have inherited the world through Christ and we complain about our homes or how hard our lives are. Now we do have trials and hardships. They are difficult and they are trying, yet this psalm also tells us, "He restores my soul." We do not need to complain, we have been given a Savior who hears our needs and takes care of us. He lived through and endured more trials than we ever will, and he never complained. This was very convicting to me yesterday and I thought I would share this with you all. Give thanks everyday and live in the light of "The King of love my Shepherd is." Read the whole Psalm and be comforted. Notice how the psalm ends. "and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
³     He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
    for his name's sake.

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
    I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
    your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
     forever.

Just begun, yet a break:)

I am heading off to Hume Lake for a week with my family. So I will be taking that time off from blogging! Have a blessed week and I'll write again soon:)

Everything Sad is Coming Untrue

There is a wooden sign that hangs above my bed. It reads, "Everything Sad is Coming Untrue." This is a question rewritten into a statement from the Lord of the Rings. Sam looks up at Gandalf and asks, "Is everything sad coming untrue?" It's one of my favorite lines ever. Having it above my bed is a daily reminder that today, it's sorrows and trials, are not the final word. That each day history moves forward, that Christ is building His kingdom and church. That each day, we work for His kingdom and His glory. Everything sad is coming untrue. One day, everything will be set right. This is such a comfort to me. That Christ has made this promise, and that he is keeping His promise. It may be hard to see, but faith and eyes wide open show us His mercies new everyday. He makes the little things, the small sadnesses untrue everyday. Sometimes, even big ones. Yet, one day they will all be undone. I was thinking one day about this in the context of Adam and Eve. How they must have wondered if the sadness that they brought about, would ever become untrue. The discouragement of Cain and Abel, yet how God had mercy and gave them Seth. Seth was the promised son, through whose line the true promised Son would come from. Through the line of Seth, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, the Son of God came and crushed the serpent. On the cross He began making everything sad come untrue. So trust in His promise, and work in His Kingdom, for it shall not fail.

From Our Seed

Oh my beloved Eve

taken from my side

your creation made me whole

a love so deep never to be stole

together we sealed our doom

my love I failed as a groom

oh how deep our gloom

but hope from our seed will bloom

Our sons fight in strife

one ending the other’s life

so we weep for our loss

Abel’s blood soaks the moss

Together we sealed our doom

my love I failed as your groom

oh how deep our gloom

how will hope from our seed bloom?

My love a day will come

when evil shall at last be done

a Savior from Seth will come

and he will make our sins undone

Alone he will unseal our doom

he shall be the perfect groom

no more shall there be gloom

and finally our seed shall bloom

Hard Providence

Everyday is a gift. That is something I truly believe. That each day is a beautifully crafted, scripted by God story. That whatever happens, is ordained by my God. It is so easy to say, believe and rest in that on sunny days. Most of my days are sunny. I have my season of dark days, but the sun still shines. Yet, as a pastor's daughter, I have people all around me who suffer daily. My dear friend, she might as well be my little sister, suffers from juvenile diabetes. I don't know what it's like to never have normal blood sugar, to always have to test and give myself insulin before I eat. There are two families in my church who have children with disabilities. For one family, it's having to make decisions that hold their child's life in the balance. For the other it's having a four year old who can't walk and a home with stairs. I don't know what this is like. On Sunday I hug them, get down and talk to the kids, but other than constant prayer this is all I can do. These parents daily trust in God's hard providence, in His divine care and love. He wrote these children's lives' this way because he loves them. It's a hard thing for man to swallow. Yet, God is God and we are not. We can only see a part of the story that He is and has written. God has written each of us our own stories, He has connected some stories, and not others. Though I may not understand why God has written some parts of the story the way He has, I will trust in His story. And if you step back and look at the story He has told so far, you will see what a masterful story it is. And right at the center of this master story is our Saviour, on a cross for us and His resurrection, His promise of our resurrection. His promise that because of His love and sacrifice, our story will never end. That our story goes on into eternity, eternal joy and communion with Him and one another. That one day my friend won't have juvenile diabetes. That the children in my church will be healthy. One will run and the other will be without pain. Providence may be hard on this pre resurrection journey. Yet, our story does not end here. In light of this, here is a poem on providence. 

Providence

From the beginning of and before time

my story has been written

its all scripted with it’s rhyme 

and cannot be unwritten

I am here not by happenstance 

or the whims of circumstance 

but the intention of providence,

ordained by God not by consequence

the first  of my breath

and my last in death

the first steps I take

the first mistake I make

Do not happen by happenstance

or the whims of circumstance

but the intention of providence,

ordained by God not by consequence

A Pulpit....

Every Lord's Day with the exception of a few, I have watched my father follow the following liturgy: He sits in his chair at the front row of our church, his eyes closed in prayer. Pastor John ends scripture reading with a hearty "the word of the Lord!" to which we respond, "thanks be to God." The blue eyes of my father open then, and he rises as if he has been waging a war in his mind. I know how hard he prepares and crafts each sermon, how strong his desire is to bring God's word to his congregation. Once he stands behind that wall of wood with Soli Deo Gloria carved on the front, a calm comes over him, and he delivers the Word to God's people. So as you can see pulpits have been a big part of my life. The one at our church was built by one of our deacons. He was an amazing carpenter. He made the cross that hangs in our sanctuary as well as our communion table. Now through God's hard providence, he suffers from parkinson's disease. He can no longer build things with his hands, but his handy work is everywhere to be seen in his church. I was pondering this one day, and thinking of the stories of all the pulpits throughout history. How each one has had God's Word proclaimed from behind it. How history was made from behind its walls of wood. How men of true faith and character courageously advanced God's kingdom, and how self proclaimed fools, declared heresy for their own profit. In the light of all these thoughts, I wrote a poem about pulpits.

A PULPIT

Hewn from wood by crafted hand

through ages of time shall it stand

humble and boastful men have stood

behind it’s wall of walnut wood

many lives have been changed

by the one true Word proclaimed

so it stands from age to age

up upon its great wooden stage

so humble yet so beautiful

like the One it proclaims

calling Kingdom’ name’s

freeing people of their chains

Wonder

wonder

a word

a feeling

given to

those who long

those who know

those who feel

those who believe 

at what do we wonder?

beauty?

love?

at what do we wonder?

Who deservers wonder?

who deserves such?

the awe of man

who I ask who?

The answer is found

a thing that is so profound..... 

the creator of wonder  

In the beginning God

that my friends....

 is Wonder...........