It has been two years since Josiah has left our home. Can't believe it? Me neither.
Dates like this one always have such sharp teeth that gnaw at scarred places, threatening rawness and wanting to expose us to ourselves in our most weakened state. Satan has no creative tricks, just old ones that work.
But as I look back this time, I see not how sad I am, but how changed I am. I used to not only grieve the loss of this boy, I grieved the loss of my role as his mother. But I am not her; I am irrevocably altered, and I am ok with that.
That girl knew waves, but nothing of walking on water.
She knew dry ground, but nothing of true thirst.
And she knew how to love, but not how to sacrifice.
I am emptied only to be filled again.
I am pruned of my most prized branches, only to make the other parts grow to be just as healthy.
I am crushed, but not abandoned.
I have learned how to love with Strength that is not my own.
I am broken, not for the purpose of being fixed, but for the goal of being made new.
I have opened my hands to Mercy, only to watch it overflow in abundance.
I have claimed God as my Refuge, my Hiding Place, my Shield, and my Rock. He is my Protector, Friend, Helper, Strength, and Song.
He is my Father.
I am His, and He is mine.
And I long for Him and Heaven in a way that I never thought I could.
I have not claimed these truths because Josiah stayed. It is because He didn't.
This is the first fall post-college that I'm not nesting my home for new children or nesting a classroom for new students. It should feel strange, but I must say, I am a little excited about it. I will miss teaching so much- the spilling of my life and my life's love into other students, the getting out of the house on a regular basis, the excuse to put on a skirt and look pretty and brush my teeth and put on mascara, the coming home in the afternoon to my children napping and my house being cleaned by my rockstar baby sitter..it will be missed. (I'm still planning on brushing my teeth, I hope.) It's wonderful and mysterious how God takes a desire and changes it into something new. Fall is the perfect time for it, because, for me, it is and has always been my "new year".
Here's my game plan for the coming school year. I've decided I need two things to be successful:
1. A plan
2. Accountability
I figure in my limited access to people taller than 3 feet, my accountability will be blogging...so bear with me, and please, please, encourage me, pray for me, challenge yourself along with me. I do so need it. My default is slughood....literally wasting my time away on the couch while my house is a mess, and dinner is not planned, and the children are plugged into Little Mermaid for the 147th time. I am lazy, I admit it. I don't naturally love to clean, although having a clean house is necessary for sanity for me, which is why I can get depressed and resentful of my husband when he gets to leave the house everyday and I don't. Which is why having a messy house is bad for my marriage.
So in addition to trying to keep my house cleaner, this is my plan...
1. I started doing the Couch to 5K exercise routine. I am not a runner, nor have I ever been. But the baby weight did not magically disappear as I was hoping, so I find myself actually having to buckle down and do something about it. The free app + an excuse to buy new running shoes and new music + being able to take a break from being in the house are all very appealing to me.
2. I want to have a bed time routine. In bed (not sleep, but up in bed) by 9:30 so I can be up by 6:00. (I have become a reader, and I love it, and I always love when I get to read before bed.) I have this terrible habit of wasting time on Pinterest until the wee hours of the evening and then wondering why the next day I am so exhausted. No more. There is no t.v. show that is good enough that it will steal my energy away from being a good mom. I was reading some great tips on moneysavingmom about how to make the most of your mornings, and she challenged her readers with making a before-bedtime routine, and making a list of must-do's before going to bed. Mine are:
1. No dishes in the sink
2. All toys picked up
3. Laundry in washer on delay start (that way all I have to do is throw it in the dryer in the morning, and I'll be able to fold it after breakfast).....because my plan is 1 load a day and to never be burried in dirty clothes.
4. Juice cups filled and in the fridge. (Nothing starts the morning off badly for me more than the girls crying for cups, and me realizing there are no clean cups.... or no cups at all. Seriously...where do they all go?!?!)
5. Clothes laid out for the girls. Having two pairs of matching socks is going to highly alleviate dressing-stress.
3. I have a friend who is really good about building into relationships, and I think I've tapped into one of her secrets. She is what I call "a calendar person." Whenever I talk to her, the conversation never ends with, "We should hang out sometime." It always ends with, "Ok...lets get out the calendar and pick a day." We don't get caught up in "my house or yours, plans for the day, who's making lunch," because by the end of the conversation, both of us usually have to go quickly. What matters is: the day is set aside. The details come later.
I want to be a calendar person- A person with a plan for seeing people. I don't naturally come by this. I'm not an initiator. I attend to avoid people because it means my house has to be clean, and that stresses me out. That's silly. Friends do not like me for my clean house. In fact, there is nothing more liberating that going over to someone's house and it not being clean. The fore-mentioned friend actually has a "don't clean your house before I come over" policy, and I love her for it, and I see her more often because of it.
So call me, friends. We'll get out our calendars together and make a plan, and I won't care about your house if you don't care about mine.
4. I want to be a better meal planner. No more 4:30 scramble. It is my worst and most stressful part of the day with screaming children serenading me, which turns out is not optimal for decision making.
5. And finally, I have an idea for a "curriculum" for my littles, and for me too, actually. I am pumped, and I mean over-the-moon excited about it. I still have to flesh out some details, so I'll save that for another post, but its coming soon.
So during this new fall....
I want to be a better and more attentive and creative mommy.
I want be a better cleaner and fill my home with the peace that a clean home brings.
I want to be a person who takes the time to stay healthy.
I want to be a better student of the Word, so I can speak truth more into the lives of my littles.
I want to be a good friend.
I can handle the fact that my house will never be clean enough, my clothes may never get put away in drawers after every load, and I'm not the best at feeding my children organic produce... but if my daughters leave my house one day without a love for the Word and without the ability to make creative messes, I will consider myself a failure at motherhood. We do a lot of Scripture memorization here, and yes, I realize Molly is 2-almost 3, and she may not "get" what it is we're doing and why. But I've said before that I feel an obligation to form her mind, and I will pray and trust along the way that the Holy Spirit will one day press those truths into her heart.
So I thought that I would share some fun tricks we use in order to hit different learning styles to memorize Scripture.
Kinesthetic Learners
...for the movers and the shakers
It didn't take long for me to realize that Molly is a kinesthetic learner. After having her enrolled in music class for a few weeks, and seeing her pace laps around the room and bang on the heater on the beat while the other children happily sat in their mothers' laps and sang...I knew Molly wasn't the kind of "sit still, be quiet, and learn this" kind of kid. She knew how to sing all of the songs and could do all the motions, her body just needed to be actively engaged in order to soak up information. (Her daddy's the same way, and the constant leg bouncing used to drive me crazy when he sat in the desk behind me in high school.)
So here's the first thing we do....
I break up the verse into phrases, and emphasize certain words so it has some rhythm and meter.
"For the SON
of MAN
came to SEEK
and to SAVE
what was LOST."
Luke 19:10
Then we put the beat in our feet and take a walk. We say the verse while...
Going up and down the stairs
I push the girls in the stroller
Swinging on swings
Tapping on drums when we play with instruments
Jumping on our "jumping couch" (our free "trampoline")
Yes, I get looks from people on the playground, but frankly, I don't care.
Sometimes we make up motions, snap, or clap our hands or move our head to the beat. Sign language is a great tool too. Having her move her hands and arms gets her body to associate movement and rhythm with words.
Auditory Learners
..... for the "repeat after me" kid
Molly loves music, and can soak up words like a little sponge when words are sung. Sometimes I make up my own songs that go with Scripture and sometimes I find songs that I think she'll like. I came across these little gems, that are probably a little too old for her now, but I can't wait to use them in a few years...
We say the verse in a silly voice, a quiet voice, a spooky voice, a sad voice, a princess voice, a loud voice, a monster voice, a sleepy voice.... we say it together so its fun for both of us and she hears it lots and lots of times.
We make a video of her and I saying it together. Molly gets a giggle when she can say the verse along with herself. Sometimes....as you can see....it takes a little bribery.
After we have repeated our verse a lot, I start toleave out wordsand have her finish phrases herself.
"For the _______
of MAN
came to ______
and to SAVE
what was ______."
Luke 19:_____
After a while, I can say the first word or two, and she can finish the verse by herself.
Visual Learners
.... connecting words and images
As an art teacher, this is the kind of learning I am drawn to most. I can remember colors and picturesWAY more and far longer than I can than with just words. One of my favorite things in our house is a chalkboard I painted on our kitchen wall using chalkboard paint, a roller, and some blue painter's tape. (Costs about $15...but I think it's priceless....and did you know that chalkboard paint comes in any color you want???) I write out our verse and draw pictures for the words that have imagery. Molly is, of course, a pre-reader, but when we say our verse, I point to each word on the chalkboard, so she is starting to learn that letters make words....words make sentences....sentences make ideas...etc.
Having a visual reminder in a central place in our home not only tells Molly that this is important, it reminds me to go over our verse throughout the day when I see it. Lots of trips to the kitchen= lots of times saying our verse (more on this later.)
Molly wanted to learn a verse about mermaids, so this is the one I picked. She decided to add on it, so at the end she "wrote," "And Ariel and mermaids." She's getting too tall!
Tactile Learners
... for kids who like getting their hands dirty
Projects, projects, projects. I can't tell you how many times we've glued things on things....but Molly can't get enough of it, so any time we can make a project that goes along with the verses or stories we're learning, I'm going to take advantage of it. (If you look at a few previous posts, you can see some of our projects we've done.)
A verse about the sky? Make a telescope out of a paper towel tube
A verse about kindness? Have them put band aids on stuffed animals.
A verse about obeying? Make a prize ribbon she can wear after she listens to her mommy or daddy the first time.
Be creative!
I can't wait until my littles can read and write and we can find different ways to write the words out (in the sand, with colorful markers, on dry-erase boards, on sandpaper....). If you find your kid constantly wanting to touch everything, they might be a tactile learner!
Some other tips....
Not sure what kind of "learner" your child is? Try a little of everything! See how they like to learn, and run with it.
Associate an activity you do all day long with saying a verse. Molly knows that each time she gets a drink, she has to come with me to the kitchen while I fill up her cup and recite her verse that's on the chalkboard. Pick something you already do several times a day...brushing teeth, a diaper change or potty break, wiping hands and faces after meal times, each time you go up or down stairs...it will make what is a daily mundane task meaningful.
Bathtub crayons are great for writing on the shower wall and will give you an opportunity to go over your verse during bath time. (I use this one for myself, and go over verses while shampooing my hair. Hey- it's probably the only 7 minutes of uninterrupted time I get all day, so it's a great time to practice saying them out loud.) Once you think you're starting to memorize it, try erasing a few words each day until you know it all!
Make a folder or flashcards to go over old verses. (We leave our projects up on our frame wall for a while, so that reminds us of our verses too.)
Choose verses that have visual imagery. We have done a lot of "God made" so that gives lots of ideas for fun visual projects.
Pick verses based on what interests your child, or verses about character qualities your child needs to practice (obeying parents, showing kindness, loving others...) or verses that they learn from Sunday School.
Memorize for as long as it takes for your child to learn. My first inclination was to have a "verse of the week," but lately it seems it has turned into "verse of the month," before I feel she really has it down.
And finally, use these tips to memorize Scripture yourself! I want to lead by example! Trying to teach Molly about the Bible has helped me to be more creative, to love God's word more, and to think about the God more throughout the day. What a blessing it has been to hide God's word in my own heart as I try to speak it into hers!
Deuteronomy 6:6-9“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7“You
shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when
you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down
and when you rise up. 8“You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9“You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
What other tips and tricks do you use to hide God's word into your own little's heart??? I would love for you to share your ideas!
How in the world could all of this amazingness have happened one year ago today? It hardly seems possible that so much healing and love and happiness can wrapped up in the gift that is our one-year-old Sadie Joy.
The happy birthday girl!
I had big plans for this weekend for her.....a Mickey/Minnie birthday party with her cousin Landon and getting her dedicated at church this Sunday. Neither happened thanks to a killer storm that knocked out power in our whole county for the past 2 nights. Instead we had a fun family adventure at my parents' who generously shared shared their generator and plenty of food. We still managed to have a small family celebration at B and Pop Pop's.
June proves to be a good month for teaching about God's glory. Evening thunderstorms, warm nights, colorful sunsets, bright stars, crystal blue skies (they're all on my list of blessings.) Nothings sets my heart into a flurry of wonder than looking up and seeing the heavens. I hope to instill that kind of awe for God's creation in my girls, so last week, this was our verse that I wrote on our chalkboard in the kitchen:
We made this little sun to hang on our art wall in the play room.
We also made a moon with colorful star stickers, but it ended up in Daddy's office at school before I could take a picture of it.
We talked about sunsets and how God paints the evening sky. (We paint a lot with water on our chalkboard wall.)
(Sadie was more interested in our mermaid family fishbowl than learning some gospel truths.)
And we watched this video. Molly sat on my lap, thumb in her mouth, fingers stroke my earlobe. While this played I whispered in her ear, "Look at the sky! Isn't God amazing!?!? Look what He made us. He must love us so much to make us something so beautiful!" And I say the verse, over and over until she can soak it all in. Her heart just absolutely swells with music and wonder.
"Look at the pink stars!" She says. She also promptly pointed out Saturn to me. (Crazy kid!)
At dinner that night, Justin asked Molly what she did that day.
She answered, "I saw the glory of God on mama's computer!" Then we watched it together as a family around the dinner table while she narrated.
One day before we went out on another one of our "adventure walks", she asked, "Are we going out to see the work of His hands?"
*sigh* I just love her. And I praise Him for the work of His hands- for the sky and for the beautiful baby girls I tuck in each night under the stars He has made for us.
(nothing like a little bribery to get her to say her verse)
What are some ways you instill wonder for God's creation with your littles?
"Look at this one, mama! It's so sparkly!" She cups it in her small hands and brings it to her nose and takes a moment to tell me how wonderful it is. I don't have the heart to tell her that the driveway is filled with ones exactly like this one. I let her find the magic in it and we celebrate the discovery. She names it. "Gaine" this one is called, she says. She runs over to the puddle God made her yesterday and casts it in. The sound, the splash, the rings it leaves behind send her into giggles again. She runs back to the driveway to find another.
I too run, not to the puddle, but to the open journal on the counter, and I cast my own into a sea of never-ending graces.
14. The rain that brought the "Stone Puddle" game
I take a moment to tell the Maker "thank you" for the smallness that instantly becomes something to marvel at the moment I take the time to scribble it down. How many times have I left so many graces underfoot by simply not taking the time to count them? How many opportunities have I lost in thanking Creator God for crafting me a lifetime of joy made up of miniscule moments such as these?
Count them, count them, pile them high! He is good. He is SO good.
21. New books and ravenous reading 37. Dozens and dozens of dragonflies and the reminder of the Resurrection, how He makes all things new 42. A weary husband who is willing to clean 53. Hymns that speak truth to my heart and a body of seasoned believers to sing them with 62. Sadie- and her belly laugh when discovered how her finger fits perfectly in her nostril 79. Tantrums past and the patience to endure them 91. Listening to John Piper while he peels, and I chop, and they sleep
I am twenty-eight days full of graces, when I realize I've hit 100. It started with a challenge from our pastor's wife to write three things down a day that you're thankful for, and the reading of this book that showed me the importance of it. And, oh, how He has blessed me through it!
And its not about finding the things. The things are mere shadows of His grace. Its the treasure hunt that is really the Treasure hunt- the discovery of gifts that show His goodness, provision, kindness, and grace. And its not the actual discovery, but the act of looking that changes me. It turns my heart from, "Why can't I ever find a matching pair?!?!?!" to "A sea of socks- I am so blessed to have too many."
It's teaching me to stoop low, marvel, name, and cast back. Sometimes the ripples last all day, sometimes only minutes, but watching how He wraps such small details in Grace makes me so thankful that I am my Beloved's and He is mine.
100. One hundred graces and thousands more to find.
It was the fall semester of my senior year in college. My mother came up to visit me in western New York before the snow started falling and would soon overtake the world until April. It was a beautiful weekend for driving away from campus, and as we were traveling through one of the small towns, we spotted a community-wide yard sale that scattered the road sides.
"Let's stop." She said, as she pulled over the car to the side of the road.
"I don't need anything," I protested.
"Maybe we'll find some treasures," she slammed the car door behind her.
As I gazed over the tables filled with old kitchen utensils, toys, and trinkets, immediately my eyes were drawn to bottles of colored glass, all shapes and sizes. "I guess I better start my still life collection," I told her. Soon, I would be an art teacher and I would need things like that, fun things for my students to draw. I started to get excited about the future as I scoured the tables for objects that would find a new home in an unknown art room somewhere someday.
Three years later, I was carefully unrolling newspaper and bubble wrap from my colored treasures and placing them on a high shelf in my new art room. I arranged and rearranged them, coupling them in groups and pairs that made them look interesting and important and appealing. Each group told a story. A teapot, candle, and cup. A cobalt blue glass next to a dull silver pitcher. A birdhouse next to a vase of silk flowers and a watering can. It was a spectacle to behold. I decided I was the coolest art teacher ever.
Finally the day came when my ninth grade drawing class was going to delve into my treasure trove of drawing inspiration. I carefully removed each object from the shelf with great care, as I showed them each piece. "See the shape of this bottle? Isn't it just fabulous? Look at the nozzle of this oil can. Isn't that silhouette so interesting? Can I get an 'oooooo'?" oooooooooooo. "Can I get an 'ahhhhhh'?" ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Yep, I was indeed awesome, and I had the still life collection to prove it. I asked them to please take great care of the pieces, as some were breakable, and I would be devastated if something would happen to them.
*Note to first year art teachers. Fourteen year old boys don't know the meaning of "be careful." I think they translate it as, "see if you can throw things across the room without dropping them."
They can't.
My beautiful vintage mint green little egg cup lay shattered in pieces. The room fell silent. All eyes went to the red-haired culprit in the corner of the room. Then all eyes focused on me, waiting for me to explode into either tears or a tirade of verbal battery.
I felt as shattered as the cup on the floor. I felt awful that he not only disrespected my property, but it was a slap in the face to what I thought was beautiful and precious and worth protecting. How could I get them to see the value in drawing something they didn't think was special enough not to break?
I walked over to my shelf, and without making eye contact with the student, who stood wide-eyed, dumbfounded, and embarrassed, I handed him my hot glue gun. I spoke two words without lifting my gaze off the floor, "Fix it."
He painstakingly took the pieces off the floor and laid them on the table. Ignoring the jabs and jeers from his peers, with flushed cheeks and sweaty palms, he took each piece and tried to restore the small cup to its original grandeur. By the end of the class period, my frustration had ebbed, and I took pity on the boy who disrespected my entire life's calling with one careless swipe of his elbow. Maybe I couldn't get him to see value in an old dusty cup, but maybe I could show him how beautiful grace is.
"I am SO sorry," he apologized over and over, feeling the full weight of what he had done.
I picked up the cup, running my fingers over the cracks and into the newly formed holes. "You know," I spoke with gentleness, "I think I like it even better now. Look how interesting it is! See?" I turned the cup around, letting the on-lookers see it from each angle. "Sometimes accidents happen. It's going to be so much more interesting to draw....and now, it has a story."
"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them, he delivers them from all their troubles. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." v. 8, 17-18
It took me a while to want to write about this Psalm. Mostly because I had no idea why I drew this image. Its the picture that flooded my mind's eye when I put pencil to paper, and so obediently, I drew it. And immediately I didn't understand it. It didn't fit the verses. It didn't depict a butterfly that was tasting goodness or going to a place that was a refuge. I wrote in my journal, "Why would God bother to go through the painful process of transforming us, only to bring us from one broken home to another? This doesn't look like God is saving anything 'from their troubles.' It's like He's showing it where to go to find more of them." I'll have to draw something else one day that fits better, I thought. But nothing ever came to mind.
A few days ago, I was thinking about brokenness and scars and the ugly and hard part of loving a God we don't understand completely. I know I'm a little late on the bandwagon, but I've been reading One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. When I first started reading it, I felt like I put on her dirty smudged glasses, and as she writes, she slowly, painstakingly is wiping the ugly away, letting me see the beauty of her world and our God. It is, like David writes, a slow tasting, and a sweet seeing.
She writes, "With memories of gravestones, of combing fingers through tangled hair, I wonder too...if the rent in the canvas of our life backdrop, the losses that puncture our world, our own emptiness, might actually become places to see.
To see through to God.
That that which tears open our souls, those holes that splatter our sight, may actually become the thin, open places to see through the mess of this place to the heart-aching beauty beyond. To Him. To the God whom we endlessly crave."
Could it be that this tasting and seeing the holy God wholly can only be understood when we first taste the saltiness of tears? I've let out a dozen holy groans from my bowels, realizing how beautiful the ugly is. It is both the ugly and the beauty of the cross, the sacrifice that brought Him nearer to us so we might find a refuge in Him. It is how He is close to the brokenhearted, because He, Himself, chose to be broken for us.
I finally get it. I've tasted the ugly, and come out seeing the beauty. Only God can do that. Isn't He good???
Before I break out the vinegar and dye,
Before I fill my girls' Easter baskets with treats,
Before I put on their pretty pink dresses with sparkly shoes,
Before I sit down to share Easter dinner with my family,
Before I celebrate a living Savior...
I stop to think of the dying Savior, who chose to suffer so we could all come to know His Father the way He does.
Today I am thankful, not that the tomb was empty, but that first it was filled.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christdied for us. Rom 5:8
1 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 5 When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.”6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. 7 All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.” 8 But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Luke 19:1-10
Concentrating on one story with Molly has really forced me into the Word in such an amazing way this week. As I was pouring truth into her little heart, it seems as though God has been pouring into mine. So here are a few lessons He has taught me through the life of Zacchaeus this week.
The tree
As I was helping Molly make her sycamore tree, I thought about what it must have been like for God to plant that seed in the ground and watch it grow. Making sure it was planted right next to the path that Jesus would walk on some day, crafting its branches to make it the perfect climbing tree, giving it a strong trunk to bear the weight of a short Jewish man. He really is an amazing Creator!
It made me think about all the "trees" he has planted in my life to draw me closer to Jesus. The trials He has placed in specific times and places on my journey, the people he brought about at just the right times to speak truth and encouragement, the verses I read on days I need my head to be lifted...they draw me into a closer walk with Him, and just like Zacchaeus, they have allowed me to see Jesus more clearly.
The coins
When Molly and I talked about Zaccheaus being a tax collector, it made me think about how the proper response after I come into contact with Jesus should be generosity to those in need.
I thought about all the ways that I hold back from giving all I should. I am more like Zacchaeus, the tax collector, than I like to admit. I steal time and energy away from my children when I choose to spend time on facebook instead of reading to them. I steal time away from making my house a haven for my family when I choose not to do dishes or vaccum and say, "I've had a long day...I need to veg on the couch." I steal a better education away from my students when I don't take the time to prepare for a lesson as much as I should. I am wealthy, and many times to choose to hoard my time, talents, and energy for myself.
Just like Zaccheaus, close encounters with Jesus tend to expose me to my own sin.
The house
The transformation that happened at Zacchaeus's house and in his heart was a profound miracle...just as worthy of celebration of the blind man seeing, lame man walking, or deaf man hearing. I can imagine Jesus coming to this man's house and how proud Zacchaeus must have been to flaunt his wealth. I don't know what Jesus said to him while He was there, but when He left, Zacchaeus's response was shame for how much he had, and remorse for how little his neighbor had. It made me think to myself, "If Jesus came to my house, would I be ashamed of how I am using my resources here? Am I keeping too much for myself when by giving things away I could be a blessing to others?"
The climb
Two things I assume about Zacchaeus's climb that day... One: being a wealthy man, he was probably wearing nice clothes- clothes that were not meant to climb trees in. And two: he either tried and failed to press through the crowds, or didn't bother trying because he knew how much he was hated. Grown men don't climb trees. His desire to see Jesus was more powerful than caring what other people thought of him.
Does my desire to know Jesus outweigh my desire to be liked, accepted, or appreciated by peers? Or do I care too much about how I am perceived and miss an opportunity to meet Him in my humility?
Climbing can be difficult, humbling, and time consuming. But like Zacchaeus learned on a road in Jericho that day, meeting Jesus is always worth it.
I wanted to teach Molly how when Zacchaeus climbed a tree he could see more. When we search for things, sometimes it helps to get a better perspective. I thought about taking her to the playground and climbing the equipment, even climbing things in our house (but then I knew that would be a bad idea in hindsight....Molly on the bookshelf, Molly on the top of the couch...Molly on the sink....you get the idea.)
I opted to take her and Sadie to a wildlife refuge about 10 minutes from my house. My dad happens to be the most amazing bird and wildlife identifier I know, and it was extra special to have Pop pop come along for our adventure.
Molly and Pop pop with matching "adventure hats"
Our first stop was the look-out tower. I told Molly, "We're going to climb the tower just like Zacchaeus! What did Zacchaeus climb?" Molly answered, "A sycamore tree! C'mon Pop pop! Let's climb the tower!" (Ah, sweet repetition pays off. If only there were some sycamore trees around here.)
Climbing with Pop pop.
Almost there...
At the top!
Pop pop showing her some geese flying.
A look through the telescope.
At this point, she didn't want to go down, but I asked her, "What did Jesus say to Zacchaeus?" And she sang, pointer finger in the air, "Zacchaeus, YOU COME DOWN! For I'm going to your house today...." And then she wanted to climb down.
Ready with her 'nocs.
We got back in the car for the rest of our adventure to see some ducks and geese.
An egret and black duck.
Driving around the refuge. You can see Atlantic City in the background.
Looking closer with her binoculars.
Snow geese.
Shovelers.
We ended our day with a trip to Bagel Gormet where Molly got a bagel with pink strawberry cream cheese, and we visited Justin at school to deliver him a bagel for lunch. It was a pretty excellent day.
