Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's Fave Five

It’s been a busy week, but a good one. I’m just a little behind where I wanted to be with Christmas preparations, but God has blessed with health and energy and productive days.

Thanks so much to those who prayed for my lower back pain. It’s not 100% yet, but it is much improved. I’m still moving carefully so I don’t set it off again.

I’m counting more blessings with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Protection. My next-to-youngest sister was in a car accident this week. Another driver cut too close when passing another car and hit my sister’s car from behind, causing it to spin around and then flip over. Miraculously, she walked away from the wreck with no serious injuries–just soreness from the seat belts and being thrown around. The other driver did not stop, but other people did. One got the offending driver’s license tag number. We assumed the driver who caused the accident didn’t have insurance since they didn’t stop, but they did, and someone filed a claim the next day. So hopefully the legal/financial stuff won’t be a hassle. But mainly I am so thankful she was okay–especially after seeing photos of the car smashed and upside down.

2. Flowers.Jim bought these for me last week, and they still look lovely. They’ve opened beautifully.

flowers

3. A timely arrival. We had ordered something for my oldest son on Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend. It was a large item, so we had it shipped to his place in RI for an early Christmas present instead of shipping it here for Christmas and then to his address. It didn’t show a shipping time during the ordering process, but afterward I got a notice of an almost two week time span it could be delivered–and part of that time, he was going to be here rather than there. We figured, between neighbors and friends coming to feed his cat, someone would bring it in. But I was still concerned about it. I was relieved to hear it arrived while he was still home.

4. Back to church. I mentioned being thankful for live streaming services last week. But it’s especially good to be able to be back in the services and Bible study.

5. Christmas music .BBN Radio plays Christmas music throughout December, and I have a good collection on my phone. I’ve enjoyed listening while wrapping presents, making cards for the family, and puttering in the kitchen.

I hope you have a good week and a very special Christmas!

Luke 2:10-11

Review: My Beloved

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My Beloved by Jan Karon

Jan Karon’s last book in her beloved Mitford series was published in 2017 and was supposed to be the end of the series. But she began to play around with an old short story idea, and eventually came up with My Beloved.

The premise of the story is that Father Tim, an Episcopal priest and the main character, has been told by his wife that all she wants for Christmas is a love letter. In a moment of inspiration, he bares his heart on paper. He also buys her a book of poetry, tucks the letter inside, and wraps them.

But then the letter and book go missing. After tracing his steps and racking his brain, he still can’t find them or come up with any ideas about where they could be. He tries a few times to write another, but just can’t get it to sound like the first one did.

Meanwhile, the letter and book get accidentally passed to various Mitford characters. Sometimes the result is comic, sometimes touching.

There are a few subplots running through the book. One involves Hope, owner of the Happy Endings book store, and the financial difficulties threatening the store. Former Mayor Esther Cunningham and her husband are aging and fussing with their “bossy” daughters over what they can and can’t do.

Dooley made an appearance in the first Mitford book as a “throwaway” boy who comes under Father Tim’s influence and, over the course of the series, eventually becomes his adopted son. Though the Mitford books are generally “cozy” reads, they don’t shy away from serious issues. Dooley’s mother had been an alcoholic who gave away some of her children for drink. Though she has become sober and even become a Christian, and all her children have been found, there are still underlying issues and pains blocking healing and relationships.

This book was structured a little differently, rotating the point of view with each chapter. I loved how the dialect instantly let us know which “voice” was speaking, even though the subject’s name was the name of the chapter.

Some of my favorite quotes:

Father Tim: “God’s love for his children wasn’t just for them to have and to hold, it was to freely, spontaneously give away—and to gratefully receive from others.”

Esther: “She was already surprised, thank you. Surprised by bein’ old as dirt; surprised by losin’ her scatter rugs; an’ surprised by goin’ from a mayor everybody voted for to an old woman whose car battery died months ago from sittin’ in th’ garage with a mouse nest under th’ hood.”

Cynthia: “Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.”

Esther: “A recliner was a drug, an’ she was overdosin’.”

Ray: “He would consider it a freebie for old people. I’m not goin’ there.” Esther: “Freebies for old people is exactly where I’m goin’.”

Esther: “At their age, surprises were not a good idea in th’ first place. You could keel over from a surprise.”

Helene: “With war raging around the world and suffering everywhere, how extraordinary, how beautiful this life could be. There were no words, really. No words.”

Father Tim: “There was only one person in the world who would really get what just happened. Thank God he was married to her.”

Father Tim: “Even now, that tribe is splitting apart, that one small wounded fragment is scattering in all directions, nursing their wounds, reluctant to give up anything so darkly familiar as their wounds, and headed to places from which they may not find their way back.”

Father Tim: “Why invite more pain into a family raised on pain? Because pain can serve as a passageway to joy. It’s that dark tunnel that goes through a mountain and dumps us out on the other side where the light is.”

I’ve seen reviews of Christian fiction that complain over the least mention of any religious content. So I have always marveled that these books so full of gospel truth have been so popular with the general public. Oh, I wouldn’t agree with every little point. But the great majority of these books are spot on.

Reading a Mitford book is like a visit back to one’s hometown. It was good to catch up with various characters and their situations.

Updated to add: Jan was interviewed on CBS This Morning recently:

Review: The Christmas Book Flood

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Christmas Book Flood

Jolabokaflod is an Icelandic tradition that translates to “Christmas Book Flood.” It began in 1944 near the end of WWII. Iceland was occupied by the Americans, and their willingness to spend money in town and help arrange for exports of the country’s fish helped Iceland become a little more prosperous than many European nations occupied by Germany.

But many items were still in short supply due to rationing. Icelanders were already great readers and storytellers, but this particular year, books were the main gifts. A tradition began Christmas night of people reading the books they had gotten for Christmas, often while enjoying hot chocolate. Sounds like a great idea to me!

Roseanna M. White has set her novella, The Christmas Book Flood, in this time and place.

Tatiana Eliasdottir is her uncle’s assistant at his publishing house. Tatiana’s sister calls to ask if she can send her seven-year-old daughter for the holidays. Her sister is having difficulties in her pregnancy, and has lost several unborn babies. Her sister’s husband has injured his leg and is out of work. They felt their daughter, Elea, needed a brighter, happier setting for Christmas. Tatiana agrees to host Elea. At first the girl is disconsolate over not being home for Christmas. But getting into some of the traditions and learning she’ll be able to go to work with Tatiana, where her favorite author, Anders Johannsson, also works, begins to lift her spirits.

Author, illustrator, and editor Anders and his secretary agree to help Tatiana watch Elea when Tatiana can’t be at her desk. Tatiana has liked Anders for a while, but he is so shy and quiet and easily flustered that it’s hard to talk much with him.

Anders’ personality tends toward quietness, but he is also that way because he feels like a misfit. His brothers are all hardy, big, strapping fishermen who make fun of him for his shyness and bookish ways.

A true part of the story deals with the publishing companies teaming to form a “Book Bulletin” sent to every home.. The results were so successful–a flood of orders–that they weren’t sure they would be able to fill the orders before Christmas.

Another part deals with Tatiana and Anders getting to know one another and overcoming their misconceptions.

Woven in with the plot was some Icelandic folklore. They don’t have Saint Nicholas, but they do have the “Yule lads“–Troll brothers who take turns visiting in December and leaving gifts in shoes if they find everything to their liking.

This was a delightful novella. I knew very little about Iceland and its traditions and folklore. Then the plot was so different from many Christmas novellas. And, though there’s a slow romance, the book is not at all cheesy. The characters have things to learn and ways to grow along the way.

There were a couple of anachronisms–I don’t know if they talked about “patriarchal” expectations of women then, or “fighting the patriarchy”–at least not in those terms.

Happily, this audiobook did include the author’s notes about the inspiration and research for this book.

I listened to the audiobook, nicely read by Talon David. The only negative to listening was I had no idea what some of the Icelandic terms and names looked like. But there was usually enough explanation that I understood what was going on.

What Would Mary Say?

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What Would Mary Say?

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is called the “favored one” and “blessed among women” in Luke 1. She’s such a wonderful example of someone wholly yielding to the Lord even though His plans for her would drastically affect her life.

As blessed and favored as Mary is, some go beyond what the Bible says to elevate her to a position almost alongside Jesus. What would Mary say about that?

We only have a few of her words recorded in Scripture, but I think they reveal a firm grasp of who she was.

She’s not sinless. A Christmas special we watched posited that because Mary didn’t have original sin, she might not have experienced labor pains. Yet the Bible doesn’t portray her as sinless. Jesus is the only person who was born without a sin nature and who never sinned once. Mary said, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 2:47), acknowledging her own need for a Savior.

She is not the one we pray to. I suppose some might get the idea of praying to Mary from the incident where Jesus and his family attended a wedding where the wine ran out. Mary went to Jesus and told Him of the problem. He eventually turned water into wine, even though He told her his “hour has not yet come” (John 2:1-12). Some have taken from this scene the idea that we can go to Mary to get her to persuade Jesus to meet our needs.

Yet the Bible doesn’t advocate praying to anyone but God. Even here, Mary was not asked to appeal to Jesus for help.

Even in Mary’s prayer in Luke 1:46-55, her emphasis is on magnifying the Lord.

The Old Testament emphasized that we don’t have access to God except through the sacrificial system He gave to Israel. When Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple, which was a barrier only the high priest could enter once a year on the Day of Atonement, was torn from the top to the bottom. Hebrews 10:19-22 says, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” We have direct access to God! As blessed and wonderful as Mary is, why would we try to go through her (which the Bible never tells us to do) when we can go directly to Him?

In the last scene where we see Mary in the Bible, she is with the other disciples of Jesus, male and female, after His ascension back into heaven. Acts 1:12-14 shows them “with one accord . . . devoting themselves to prayer.” She wasn’t being prayed to: she was praying along with them to God.

Mary’s last recorded words. The last thing that the Bible tells us Mary said was to the servants at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus turned water into wine: “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). Her emphasis is always on Him. Do what He says. She claims no authority for herself. Even with Jesus’ followers in Acts, the disciples are in leadership, not Mary.

There’s much we can admire and emulate about Mary. Her humility. Her faith. Her willingness to do God’s will. Her grasp of God’s truth shown in her prayer. Her tendency to treasure and ponder in her heart things that occurred when Jesus was born. Her faithfully standing by Him during His crucifixion.

But she wouldn’t want us to worship her or elevate her to the same, or nearly the same, status as her Son. She would want us to honor, believe in, and glorify Him.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is our mediator. He is the one who changes us as we behold Him. He is our peace. In Him is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

Let’s proclaim along with Mary, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46-47).

Luke 1:46-47

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Laudable Linkage

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Laudable Linkage

This week we observed the anniversaries of the passing of both of my parents. They died in different years, but the fact that they died so near Christmas, and at a relatively young age (late 60s), can cast a shadow over the holidays. Even a loss earlier in the year or decades ago can cause pangs at Christmas. It seems like every year, someone I know has experienced a fresh loss. I don’t usually include my own links in this space, but I wanted to share some thoughts that helped me, written several years ago: Christmas Grief, Christmas Hope, Christmas Joy.

And while I am at it, I am starting to see posts about choosing a word for the next year. I want to remind us that You Don’t Have to Choose a Word for the Year. If you find that practice beneficial, it’s fine to do. But it’s not something Scripture tells us to do. However, He does tell us to mediate on His Word day and night.

What If I Don’t Desire Jesus This Advent? “We are an unapologetically over-the-top Christmas family. But this year, somehow, feels different. As I write this, we are preparing to walk into the Advent season, and to be honest . . . I haven’t been feeling it. At all.”

Mama, You Don’t Have to Save Christmas, HT to Challies. “I always seemed to face the holiday season in a state of low-key panic that I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. I certainly have bigger regrets as a mother, but I do wish I could go back and tell my younger self to take a deep breath.”

Combating Imposter Syndrome by Embracing God’s Presence, HT to Challies. “I don’t know if I’ve ever felt like I was the right person for the job, whether as a dad, a pastor, or even a friend. There has always been a small voice in my head telling me that I’m not good enough. Sometimes, even in the wake of a compliment, I feel added pressure to prove to myself that I deserve the affirmation.”

The Blessing Paradox. “God’s good blessings have the potential to ruin us. If we aren’t careful, we’ll take the good things God gives and turn inward so that we consider ourselves the hero rather than the one who needs rescuing.”

Waiting in the Hope of Coming Redemption: Walking with Our Sister Anna. Anna is one of my favorite lesser-known people in the Christmas story. I enjoyed these observations from her life.

7 Practical Ways to Cultivate Faith in Children from a Young Age. “It’s still a learning curve to coach my kids in following Jesus through the different ages. But I’m convinced that teaching the next generation about God’s faithfulness means laying a biblical foundation before the teenage years arrive.”

Motherhood Is a Refining Fire, HT to Challies. “Weary mom, take heart. Those moments — the hardest, the most broken — are precisely when God can, in the words of John Bunyan, do his “wounding work,” conforming you into the image of his Son.”

Chris Anderson quote

Only as man could He die as a substitute for other men.
And only as God could He suffer infinitely, paying for the sins of all the redeemed.
Chris Anderson, Gospel Meditations for Christmas

Friday’s Fave Five

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Friday's Fave Five

It’s time again to share blessings from the week with Susanne and friends at Living to Tell the Story.

1. Steady progress. I have been discouraged that my lower back pain is still there. I start to feel pretty normal one day and worse the next. It’s like two steps forward and one back. But at least there is progress–it’s much better than it was originally.

2. A visit from Melanie. We usually get together once every few weeks but hadn’t seen each other since late September/early October due to scheduling and health issues. We wanted to try to get a visit in before the holidays and then my procedure in January. So she offered to come to my house for coffee or tea and a snack. Since Jim went to the store for me that morning, I ended up getting a lot of sweet and savory snacks. 🙂 So we had something of a finger food feast, but we had both missed lunch, so it worked out great.

3. Live streaming church. It’s always better to be there in person, but when we can’t, I am so thankful we can join in via live stream. I remember the days when sermons were audiotaped and then we had to wait a week to get a copy. That was better than nothing, but I so enjoy watching in real time.

4. Christmas cards. The first ones are starting to come in. I hope to get mine out this week.

5. A new microwave installed. I mentioned in October that our over-the-range microwave had died. It was still under a service contract, so the company sent someone out to fix it. After five service visits over two months replacing various parts (some twice), they finally replaced it. We had a little microwave from my husband’s office (from when my mother-in-law stayed there) to get us through, but it’s nice to have the kitchen back to normal.

6. A ingenious fix. I have trouble reaching items in the cabinet above the range unless they’re right on the edge. But often they get bumped back, or I can touch them but not get my fingers around them. We don’t keep a lot up there, but there was no good place to move them to. My husband solved the problem by putting a tension rod behind the items so it keeps them all at the forefront.

How was your week? I hope you’re getting done the things you need to while enjoying the season as well.

Review: Exodus for You

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Exodus for You

The book of Exodus has some of the most exciting and touching passages in the Bible, but also some chapters of details that aren’t quite so inspiring to read. Our ladies’ Bible study at church used Exodus for You: Thrilling You with the Liberating Love of God, where Tim Chester shares insights to better help us get the most from Exodus.

The narrative in Exodus begins some 400 years after Genesis ends. Jacob’s whole family had come to Egypt to escape famine, under the favor of son Joseph. But now a king had arisen who did not Joseph and didn’t regard his leadership and help during the famine crisis so many years ago. All this king knew was that there were enough Israelites to potentially rise up against Egypt. So he had them enslaved and commanded that male Israelite babies be killed.

During this time, Moses was born. You’re probably familiar with the story of his mother making a waterproof basket to put her baby in and setting it upon the Nile, where it was found by Pharaoh’s daughter, who took Moses to raise as her own.

The next several chapters detail Moses’ life, call of God to deliver Israel, and development as a leader.

Then we have the ten plagues in Egypt, the Israelites’ exodus, God’s deliverance through the Red Sea, the giving of the law, and the golden calf incident and its consequences. Some of the tenderest passages occur as Moses intercedes for God’s forgiveness for His people and then asks to see God’s glory. There are several chapters of details about the law and instructions for the tabernacle, it’s furnishings, and the priest’s garments. The book ends with the people obeying God by constructing the tabernacle and the glory of the Lord filling it.

God had promised to dwell with His people, and the tabernacle was a vivid picture of His fulfillment of that promise, which ultimately pointed to a fuller fulfillment to come in Christ.

Some of my favorite chapters in Chester’s book dealt with the symbolism of everything about the tabernacle. One of our Sunday School teachers from another church taught symbolism that the Bible doesn’t corroborate, like the four corners of the altar representing the four gospels, and the two cherubim over the mercy seat representing the Old and New Testaments. I don’t know if he got such ideas from a source or from his own musings. Chester does a much better job of showing from the rest of Scripture what each item symbolizes and points to.

Chester draws several parallels between the tabernacle and the garden of Eden, which was new thought for me. The cherubim guarding the entrance to Eden after Adam and Eve sinned and the cherubim oven into the curtain between the Holy and Most Holy place were pretty obvious parallels. I am still pondering some of the others (some are listed here).

I had never before heard of Chester’s description of God’s judgment and restoration through the Red Sea incident and others.as “uncreating” and “recreating.” I’m not quite sure I agree with that depiction–I have to think about it some more.

Some of my favorite quotes from Exodus for You:

God “remembered his covenant with Abraham”. What is going to drive this story is the promise to Abraham. “Remembering” is a covenantal term. It means deciding to act in order to fulfil a covenant. It’s not that the promise to Abraham had somehow slipped God’s mind. It’s not that he got distracted by other things. “Remembering” means 20
God is about to take the next step in the fulfilment of his promises (pp. 19-20).

One of the many ways in which God works good from suffering is that he uses it to make us cling to him in faith, to clarify our identity as his children and to increase our longing for the new creation (p. 21).

Moses will discover who God is through God’s saving acts. God is self-defining, and he is about to provide a definition of his name–and that definition is the exodus. In the exodus we will see the holiness of God in his judgment on Egypt. We will see the power of God in his triumph over Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt. We will see the grace of God in the redemption of Isarel. And we will see the rule of God in his words on Mt. Sinai (p. 41). 

God intends not only to make himself known to Israel but also through Israel. The law is given to shape Israel’s life so that they display the character of God. It is missional in intent (p. 141).

“You shall not make for yourself an image” (v. 4). This is to reduce God to something of our own making–not to replace him, but to make him manageable, to understand him according to our notions rather than according to his revelation in his word. Have you ever judged God or reduced him? (p. 176).

For the most part, I greatly benefited from what Chester shared in this book. 

If you’d like an overview of Exodus, the Bible Project shares it in two videos–Part 1 is here, part 2 is here. 

Review: A Royal Christmas

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Melody Carlson must be the queen of Christmas novellas–she’s written dozens of them.

In A Royal Christmas, Adelaide Smith is a law student working her way through college as a barista. Her mother passed away three years earlier, and she’s still grieving.

One day she gets an official-looking letter saying that her DNA in a registry has indicated she is the daughter of King Maximillian Konig of Montovia, a small European country near Lichtenstein.

At first, Adelaide believes the letter is a scam. But upon further investigation, she begins to think it might be legitimate. Her mother had never said a word about her father.

She calls the phone number provided in the letter and is told her father is dying. He would very much like to meet her while he can. He will pay all her expenses to travel to Montovia.

So Adelaide travels to Montovia for the month of December. She’s met by a member of Parliament named Anton, who has been assigned to be her guide and help her with anything she needs.

Adelaide meets with the king and is soon drawn to him. She learns the particulars of her parents’ relationship. She discovers her father would like for her to rule in his place when he passes on. Though Adelaide comes to love Montovia, she’s not even a citizen. What would she know about being a queen?

Not everyone would be happy about her staying on, especially not her father’s wife, who has been grooming her son from a previous marriage to take over for the king.

Amidst learning the privileges and problems of royal life, evidence of some kind of intrigue arises.

This book had Princess Diaries vibes at first. Though there are some similarities, the plot is different. Some parts were predictable. But it was a nice, short Christmas read.

The audiobook was free from Audible’s Plus Catalog, and the ebook was $1.99 at the time I purchased it (and still was as of yesterday).

A Plea to Older Women

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A Plea to Older Women

The Bible tells us older folks to mentor, teach, and be an example to younger people.Though I’ve never had a formal mentoring relationship with an older woman, I have been blessed by the testimony, example, and encouragement from women just ahead of my own life situation. Sometimes a passing remark from one of them has stayed with me for days, even years.

Now being in the “older” category myself, I understand concerns about trends in our world today.

It’s good for older people to share from their experience or express their opinions. But how we share our concerns is as important as what we share.

I’ve winced at memes on social media from older people extolling the ways life was superior “back in our day.” But I wonder if we realize how that sentiment comes across. Some might be meant as a joke, but many have a bite to them.

I think those kinds of posts either make people roll their eyes or get defensive. These memes can come across as condescending or finger-wagging, causing unnecessary offense.

Before we post such memes, here are some things that might be good to consider:

We did many things differently from our parents’ generation, didn’t we? So why would we be surprised when the next generation does as well?

Our view of “our day” may not even be correct. We tend to wax nostalgic, reframing the good and forgetting the bad.

We need to remember the struggles we had as younger women–the feeling that we’re failing at motherhood, at life in general, that we’ll never catch up or measure up.

Sometimes the issues some like to gripe about reflect cultural changes that aren’t good or bad in themselves.

For one example, a particular meme said something catchy (though I have forgotten how it was worded) about how we survived without taking water bottles or to-go coffee cups with us everywhere.

My first thought was, “So . . . what’s so bad about that?” So people like to bring their drink of choice with them. Is that a character flaw?

Another meme (or maybe the same one) went on to decry the bringing of our beverages into church. However, some people may think it makes for a more hospitable atmosphere to bring beverages. Many churches have coffee brewing and offer to-go cups from before Sunday school until after the morning service. Some of us who have physical problems like postnasal drip, with its frequent throat-clearing, or dry mouth, call less attention to ourselves and distraction for others by being able to take a sip rather than having to go out to the water fountain during a service.

I’ve known people adamantly opposed to bringing food or beverages into the sanctuary. But this is a cultural rather than a biblical issue. Churches didn’t have sanctuaries in Bible times. They met in homes, where there well might have been something to drink. There’s nothing sinful about carrying beverages with us, even bringing them into church.

It’s true we might not understand some of the practices of younger folks. And our practices might even actually be better. I’ve seen memes about phone usage and discipline that I actually agreed with. But the sarcastic tone didn’t invite dialogue or conversation.

Instead of ridiculing or talking down to younger women, let’s edify them. Instead of sharing what we think of as our better ways, let’s share from our own failures and faults how the Lord gave us grace and helped us overcome. Let’s encourage them that God loves them and wants them to draw close to Him and seek His help. His grace is always available in times of need. Let’s look for the positive and the well-meaning intentions to praise. Let’s tell them they are doing a good job when they are and pray for them when they need help. Let’s make our speech healthful rather than stabbing.

Isaiah foretold of the Servant of the Lord, Jesus, “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught” (Isaiah 50:4). May we meet each day with Him, learn of His truth and character, and share with others in humility and love. May our words–and memes–be full of grace.

Proverbs 12:18

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