Getting to Know the Family Better Takes Time and Effort

Uncle Bryan traveled 8 hours on Friday to get to Statesboro, Georgia, only to leave at noon on Sunday and return to Miami. Why such effort for so short a visit? He took the time and made the effort to spend time with family because he believes in the importance of family time. He drew his Hawaii house's view with sidewalk chalk, and then played front yard soccer amidst an infestation of gnats.

After worshiping together on Sunday, we ate our lunch before Bryan got his good-bye hugs from his niece, Austyn Grace. I thought of the ideas expressed in The Message's paraphrase of verses from Galatians 6.

⁴Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. ⁵Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

⁹So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. ¹⁰Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

So as we all have opportunity this week, let's invest ourselves in the lives of those closest to us -- our family.

Reunions

Around 8:30 tonight, as Brent, Becky, Dave and I sat in the living room, engrossed in reading Austyn Grace her bedtime story, Uncle Bryan walked up to the front door. Although Aunt Stacey is working in Honolulu, Uncle Bryan drove here after having just worked three weeks in Miami....their work life is complicated to say the least! The six of us together at one time constitutes a mini-Wolfe family reunion because we seven live in three different states -- Maryland, Georgia and Hawaii!

But our hugs had to wait for something else. You see, the most exuberant reunion occurred between Bryan and his dog Zeus! Taking a photo proved impossible as the Husky mix went ballistic, bounding over pillows, then over the back of the sofa. She wanted to launch her 40+ pounds right into Bryan's arms. With each pass through the living room, she gathered speed and excitement. Her shepherd ears lay plastered against her head as she could barely contain her joy. We laughed, gasped, and held on lest we get knocked off our feet as we witnessed the love displayed at the sight of dog and master reunited.

Tonight I caught a tiny glimpse of the indescribable delight that lies ahead in our most important reunion. Yes, I'll be excited to see many family and friends in heaven, but I will express total joy in ways I can only imagine when the Master welcomes me home.

Traveling Grandma's Thoughts

My friend Irene started calling me "Traveler" when Dave and I moved out here to the woods almost ten months ago. The name fits, not because Dave and I globe trot to China and exotic ports of call, but because our trips take us to Georgia and Florida to see our grown guys, their wives, and our two-year-old granddaughter.
Our adventurous sons moved out of Maryland to pursue grad school and jobs. We enjoyed each phase with Brent and Bryan, especially the teen years. By the time they had finished college, we had transitioned to adult friends. We still love to spend time together, whether we do something like spot gators in the Everglades or just hang out and watch a DVD. Happily, both guys married women who like us, and the two-year-old charmer named Austyn Grace won our hearts immediately.
The dryer's hum and the appearance of suitcases on our bed mean we will head out tomorrow morning with a first stop in Augusta to see Vickie and DeWayne Davenport. Zeus, Bryan and Stacey's dog, will make the trip with us, and then fly to Hawaii on September 5th to join Bryan and Stacey at their new home. That means we are packing dog food, toys, shampoo, leashes and crate, along with our clothing for temperatures almost 40 degrees warmer than here in our woods. I also have homemade cookies and things Austyn Grace left here during her last visit. The packing presents a daunting task.
As the logistics of this trip began to boggle my mind, I thought of the trip made on my behalf over two centuries ago. Making that journey, enshrined in a virgin's womb, meant giving up heaven for earth, walking beside faithless humans, shedding infinite mobility for entrapment in flesh and blood, and offering up that flesh and blood in the world's most heinous execution. That trip, made out of unfathomable, unconditional love, truly demonstrates God's grace to His world. With a thankful heart, I returned to my simple packing task, mindful of One who came for me.

Monday Meditation

I continue to study prayer corporately at church and independently from the porch of our cabin. Yesterday's sermon provided a wake-up call about the breadth of my prayers. You know. Can I pray beyond my needs and the needs of my family? And do I?
Even when I had more brain cells than I do now, I had a prayer focus for days of the week to aid my memory. For example, since Monday starts with m, I pray specifically for missionaries then. Dave and I keep tabs with some particular folks serving in the US and in four foreign countries. We email and know details about their prayer needs. However, one missionary friend, now in heaven, used to tell us this simple truth: He'd say, "What are you struggling with right now? What's on your mind? We can probably use prayer for the same kinds of things." Your kids start school this month and you have concerns about their choice of friends and the teachers they will have. The same smooth transitions you pray for your kids you can pray for ours too. Whether we have the most current letter or email, we can pray meaningful prayers for missionaries.
But the pastor still has me thinking about other countries and things beyond my immediate concerns. So this morning I stopped and asked the Lord to enlarge my boundaries. I'm not thinking the prayer of Jabez that gained popularity a few years ago. Rather, what information could I gather that would make me a more intelligent pray-er? Honestly, I did some Scripture reading this morning, followed by some listening. Still working on that.
Another difference in my prayer life comes from using HOPE. H starts my prayer with an emphasis on the holiness of God and giving Him the honor due His name. O opens my heart to present my offenses to this holy God. P allows me to praise the Lord through using the Psalms, a CD or singing aloud, and finally, E leads me to present needs and concerns for God's eternal purposes, something larger than please heal my neighbor. Prayer keeps bringing a joy in this journey of life. No one likes dull or repetitive conversations, so why offer them to the Lord?

August's Garden

In the woods on our ridge, autumn comes early. The daisies' innocent beauty fades; the cone flowers' vibrant pinks grow pale; the first colored leaves lie scattered on the ground. Soon signs advertising "hardy mums for sale" will dot our surrounding country roads. The halcyon days of summer give way to the hectic pace of school schedules.

Words and their derivations fascinate me, and Stephen Messenger, writing in The Wall Street Journal, provided some information earlier this summer on the naming of flowers. "Like many words in our language, many of the names of flowers hold clues about their history and relationship to us. The daisy, for example, known for its small yellow blossoms, is quite common throughout the world. Daisies are unique in that they close their golden petals during the night and keep them shut, as if in sleep, until the morning. This peculiar characteristic earned this little flower the name 'day's eye' from speakers of Old English. Eventually, that name was compounded into the word daisy." A less favorite plant, "dandelions also derive their name from their characteristically numerous thick and slender yellow petals. It is not so strange for an imaginative observer to equate the dandelion's coarse petals to rows of teeth on a well-fanged beast. This comparison explains its French origin dent de lion, or in English "teeth of a lion." Haven't we all tried a myriad of treatments in our battle with this lion as it seeks to devour our lawns?

God provides a visual and a linguistic reminder in The Message as it paraphrases Isaiah 40:6-8

I said, “What shall I shout?”

“These people are nothing but grass,

their love fragile as wildflowers.

⁷The grass withers, the wildflowers fade,

if God so much as puffs on them.

Aren’t these people just so much grass?

⁸True, the grass withers and the wildflowers fade,

but our God’s Word stands firm and forever

So as flowers' hues fade and summer passes into the yellow leaves of fall, we can remain steadfast, not on the ephemeral elements of the seasons, but on the surety of God's Word to us.

Getting Your Own Food

When Dave and I visited the Garrett County Fair last week, I took this photo of a goat eating its neighbor's food. Cute? Clever? I actually took the picture as a reminder that food often is my idol of choice. In case you think of idolatry only in terms of a wooden or stone statue in a pagan culture, let me assure you that we all have some golden calf whether fame, education, money, or some natural inclination. Either Jesus controls (rules) my behavior or some idol does. According to Romans 1, an idol leads me to "futile" thinking to the point that I will "exchange the truth for a lie." To discover the basis for the lie, I have to work at identifying my idols by asking hard questions. What frightens me in nightmarish proportions? What sends anger into overdrive? What good qualities have assumed deity proportions in my life? What or whom do I think I have to control to make my world worth living? Answering such questions takes time and honest thought, but in order to heal, I have to recognize the malady.
After a time of soul searching, the best news available comes from the Gospel. However, many wave off the Gospel as too simplistic or unsophisticated. Moralists tell me to change my behavior, but slipping back into legalism will not destroy idols. The psychological camp wants me to feel better about myself and leave idols to another time and/or culture.Only the Gospel tells me I'm worse than I ever dared think and loved more than I ever dared hope. Worse, because I have established some food as a savior. My bondage to sin was broken by Christ. I reread Romans 6:14 "Sin shall not be your master for you are not under the law, but under grace." The focus now fixes on Jesus who calls me His own child and allows me to all Him, "Abba, Father," or Pappy. As my knowledge of Christ's righteousness deepens, my love draws me toward Him and begins to destroy the idol. The struggle continues, but neither enforced behaviors nor positive feelings demolish idols. Falling more deeply in love with Jesus as the lover of my soul, lets me find my sufficiency in Him.

Blackberry Season

Picking wild blackberries demands knowledge and persistence. Some of the berries look bright red, but since these are not raspberry bushes, we know red berries or those just turning black will taste bitter and seedy. However, since bears and birds feed on these berries, waiting too long means losing the berries to the wildlife.So besides the knowledge about what ripe fruit looks like, the successful berry picker must frequently check the same places. Earlier this summer, we sampled the bitter berries, but this afternoon Dave helped me get on the ATV, and we rode off to harvest the now sweet blackberries that grow at the end of Bearfoot Road. The old bramble-twisted bushes didn't easily surrender their sweet fruit, and the heat and gnats made picking berries a sticky, demanding task. Still, we wanted to share some of the berries with a neighbor and make a blackberry cobbler. Without Dave's help, I would have abandoned the task almost immediately. The brambles tore into my jeans and then into my hand; gnats bit my lip and eyelids as sweat rolled down my face; my unsteady balance required Dave's frequent help just to move me to the next clump of berries. Yet the berries we shared and the ones ready for tomorrow's baking made the effort worth it.
When I taught at Annapolis Area Christian School, I told my students that studying Scripture would always take knowledge and persistence. Satan wants to keep us from serious Bible study any time he can. Spiritual growth has always taken study tools, time, staying at the task, and sometimes a person with more skill who can help lead the way. I'll be thinking of blackberry picking as I review Galatians 4 tomorrow morning and appreciating a Savior who helps me see His truths in everyday tasks.