Yearly Archives: 2008

A few minutes ago I returned home from a memorial service honoring a truly remarkable woman.  Becky, whose life was cut short on Christmas Eve, touched an amazing number of people in her mere 50 years on this earth.  I could share a hundred LiveDifferent Challenges from her life–giving to others, persevering, keeping perspective, serving Christ powerfully in a secular environment.  But you know what stood out to me the most during the service?  Becky’s Smile. 

During the service a continual slideshow of pictures was played, for nearly 2 hours.  Ranging from childhood to wedding pics to her last few months of battling cancer, complete with bald head and hospital beds.  Not all of them were glamour shots, but one thing was present in every single one: Becky’s Smile. 

Becky always smiled. 

Some people hide from cameras.  Because of extra weight, bad hair days, or just other random insecurities, many of us shy away from photos, always try to get in the back of a group picture, and give a reluctant smile that clearly communicates, “I hate that you’re taking my picture because I”m so self-conscious but I’ll grimace so as to not be too rude.”  Becky was no such person.  In every single photo, even the ones that I’m sure most of us would have wanted to burn if they were of us, in every single photo she looked straight into the camera and smiled with every ounce of her being.  Her face said, in every single picture, “Praise God for life.” 

And she didn’t just smile for pictures.  In the 13 years that I knew Becky, she always smiled.  She was no clown, she was a tough, serious-minded woman who knew sorrow, pain, and trial.  But she looked in the face of evil and smiled.  Why? Because she knew whom she had believed.  She knew it’s gonna be worth it. 

I’m challenged by Becky’s life in many ways, and perhaps this small way is not the most significant.  But then again, it is significant.  I’m challenged to never refuse to have my picture taken.  I’m challenged to smile my biggest toothiest grin and squeeze my son tight or lay a big kiss on my husband.  I’m challenged to quit thinking about whether I look fat or my eyes are closed or I’m standing in a way that makes my hips look wide (because they just are–it’s not the way I’m standing!).  I’m challenged to just look into that camera–and into life–and smile a smile that reaches to my toes.  Becky’s smile has touched my life. And I pray mine can touch others as well. 

“Strength and dignity are her clothing,And she smiles at the future.”  Prov. 31:25 

Only confidence in Christ can free us to face the future–and yes, even death–and smile.

In one of Dutch’s books, a little girl shares how sometimes she feels happy, sometimes she feels sad, and often she feels “happy-sad”.  It’s that emotion we all know so well that is mixed–happy over one aspect of life and yet tugging sorrow remains.  Today I’ve felt happy-sad.  I am rejoicing that it is Christmas time!  I am rejoicing that my family is here, that my precious little Heidi is healthy and kicking like crazy, that my little son’s burns are healing amazingly. I’m so excited about CHristmas, sharing the next few days with my favorite people in the world.  And yet, this past week has been one tinged with sorrow.  Two of my friends have each lost a baby in the past week.  They are grieving in ways I cannot even imagine. Then this morning we heard that a dear woman, a family friend, went to be with Jesus … far too early.  It seems odd to think of celebrating, singing Christmas carols and sipping cider, knowing that those close to us are hurting beyond measure.

I put Dutch down for his nap and went to take a nap. My eyes were burning with fatigue and my body ached.  Family will be over any minute but I needed to rest.  And as I lay there, thinking about all this, I kept asking God what the right response is.  How do we embrace this Christmas without forgetting the pain that’s around us, fresh and raw?  I thought of the words of one of my favorite Christmas songs by Mercy Me:  “How could heaven’s heart not break on the day that You came?”  Yes.  Of course. Of course the day Jesus came was one of infinite joy. And yet in the cradle we see the cross.  He came to die.  Tears of joy mingled with tears of sorrow, for He would overcome the world but it would cost Him everything.

And then I thought of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18:

“But we do not want yout to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.  For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.  For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive shall not precede those who have falen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of comman, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words.

And chapter 5:16:

“Rejoice always.” 

Rejoicing may not always look like head-tossed-back laughter. It may take a quieter form.  Today I will rejoice by savoring and cherishing the most precious people in my life–my family.  Today I will listen, love, embrace, hold nothing back.  I will savor every second God gives us together.  And remember that we will be united, forever, and will always be with the Lord, for nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Merry Christmas.

So, because I’ve committed to being real with you, it means I must share the real parts of life, little unimportant details that somehow are hugely important.  Today was an unexpected blessing. On the heels of my little “When Plans Change” lesson to myself, I was determined to just go with whatever happened.  To our amazement (and yes, horror) Jeff’s dad and step-mom and step-grandma decided on a crazy whim this morning to drive home to California in their little 2WD rental car.  How curious it was to see the roles reversed, Jeff on the phone with his dad, trying to convince him to be safe, checking if they had chains, reminding them to charge their cell phone.  It was actually sort of humorous.  Anyway, they are off.  Then we found out that — hooray! — as of right now my brother and family are flying in tonight at 10pm and Jeff’s mom and step-dad will arrive on Saturday. 

So a mixture of ultra-cabin-fever from being in the house for more than a week, and the extra 25 lbs. of pregnancy weight, the inability to buy new clothes, and the fact that I haven’t gotten my hair done in WAY too long gave me the wild idea that since Jeff was staying home today maybe I could find some salon that was open, and by some crazy chance get a hair appointment.  At 10am I called a place in West Linn who said I could come at 10:45.  Jeff, my hero, loaded up the car with Dutch, toys, and snacks, and drove me there, then took Dutch over to his grandma’s house and spent the morning blessing her (she hadn’t been out of the house in WEEKS) by letting Dutch play, then drove her to the grocery store so she coud stock up on food.  Then he drove back and picked me up after my morning of luxurious solitude, and made me feel like a supermodel with my new highlights.  As we bumped home in the snow I just had to thank God for the unexpected blessing–I know it meant the world to his grandma to see Dutch, and it meant the world to me to get some pampering time alone.  I prayed and hoped God would bless him for his selfless love.

…And I think He did. Just now Jeff got a phone call from a friend seeing if he wanted to go to a Blazer game tonight!  He hasn’t been to a Blazer game in more than 10 years!  So yeah…needless to say he was bouncing around like a kid in a candy store.

All that to say that today has been a day of unexpected blessings.  Perhaps not all changes of plans are bad after all… 🙂

Needless to say, us Portlanders have all had a few change of plans recently.  Our church was cancelled last week due to crazy amounts of snow.  All week we adjusted, cancelled, switched things around.  Saturday instead of a lazy day relaxing at home we were in the ER all morning with our poor burn-victim son, then changing guaze pads and wrapping Dutch’s little blistered arm.  Sunday we miraculously made it to church, after Jeff spent an entire HOUR de-icing the car.  It literally had an inch thick of solid ice encasing the entire thing–I’ve never seen anything like it.  Realizing that that wasn’t going to be fun every morning, and since our garage is too short for our car, Jeff got creative and moved everything around and managed to park diagonally in our garage! He has to crawl in through the passenger door in order to get to the driver’s seat, but at least there’s no more de-icing! 

Needless to say the huge 2nd birthday party for Dutch was widdled down to just my parents and Jeff’s dad and step-mom and step-grandma who flew up last week from California.  And the snow was coming down so hard and they were so afraid of getting stuck that we moved up the time, skipped Dutch’s nap, then raced through dinner, cake, and presents in record speed. 

Today Jeff braved the 20 inches of snow and went to work, only to work a few hours and then take other staff members home who had no other way!  Tonight we had to go buy new guaze and wrapping materials for Dutch’s arm, which took 1.5 hours since most pharmacies were closed.  Jeff’s dad and step-mom and step-grandma were supposed to fly back to California this morning, but are now stuck, as PDX is closed, and can’t fly out until the 27th!  They’re pretty bummed, stuck in their hotel room for an extra five days, missing their own holiday plans with their own family.  My brother and his wife and daughter, scheduled to arrive today from Utah, now are told their flight won’t be rescheduled until the 27th as well…and I was counting down the hours until I’d get to see them.   Jeff’s mom and step-dad, who had wanted to be here as well, are stuck in Bend until the weather clears.  Basically, we have family desperately trying to come see us and family desperately trying to leave us! 🙂  Our holidays plans are all on hold; church services are TBA.  We’re still planning to meet Christmas Eve…but we use the word “plan” pretty loosely these days. 

This morning I read through the book of James.   Chapter 4:13-14 stood out to me.

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.”

Now I dare say it’s not sin to make holiday plans…and this is by far the worst snow storm we’ve had in my lifetime; so it’s no wonder we’re all caught unawares.  But it just reminded me that I need to continue to hold every “tomorrow” with an open hand.  I was actually doing great all weekend, rolling with the punches of the ER, the weather, the birthday changes. I always think it’s kind of fun when crazy weather hits–it feels like a huge adventure.  Besides, we have power, warm water, and plenty of food–no complaints!  But today I started to get bummed as I thought about our holidays plans evaporating the way I wish our snow would!  My heart was set on our whole family coming to WCC’s special Christmas Eve service.  I wanted so badly for them to see “our world”.  For the first time, Jeff and I were getting to host Christmas Eve, and I had everything planned and ready. Our tree is beautiful. The house is decorated.  I’m stocked up on cider and a freezer full of Christmas cookies. I’ve been aching to see my brother and his family so bad.  So I admit, today I finally felt deflated.  Deflated because plans change.

Pastor Joel talked about this very thing yesterday at church. I actually didn’t get to hear the sermon because there were so few people there at church that there was no childcare, and Dutch was the only nursery-age kid there, so Jeff and I took turns sitting out with him and reading books. He held him during worship so I could play the djembe (he kept calling “mama” and wanting to run on stage), and I took him during the sermon.  But just hearing Jeff’s summary of the message ministered to my heart. 

Pastor Joel talked about how Joseph and Mary, a  young couple engaged to be married, probably just wanted a normal life. They were probably excited for their wedding, making plans, looking forward to their life together, perhaps children, establishing their life.  And Gabriel changed everything.  A simple change of plans.  Plans changed because God wanted to do more than give them a simple happy life. He wanted to save the world through them.  God ruined their plans to save the world.  O how grateful we are that God changed their plans!!!   O how grateful I am that Mary and Joseph didn’t just get to get married and lead a normal life.  O how eternally grateful. 

And so it reminds me today that “tomorrow” is never certain, and that God might want to change our plans to save the world.  Ok perhaps Messiah might not be coming in this snowstorm, but God might be doing something far greater than my fun holiday plans.  And I’m reminded to pay attention, because God might just be at work when plans change. 

On my “Last Year This Week” section, I see the post entitled “My Son Turns One”.  I remember that huge sense of relief I felt when Dutch turned one.  It was like Jeff and I turned to each other and went, “Whew. We made it.  He’s still alive.”  That first year is so full of emotions and innumerable firsts.  It’s like you arrive at the first year finish line exhausted and weary and so thankful the crazy little munchkin is somehow still alive despite your own stupidity and ignorance.  Somehow they survive that inevitable falling off the bed (three times in Dutch’s case), peeing in their own face (ok at least Dutch did that), and eating something you later find out is strictly off limits until one year of age (strawberries in Dutch’s case). 

Two feels a little different.  It feels less like a relief and more like a preparation for a coming train. Instead of looking at eachother and saying, “Whew. We made it. He’s still alive.”  We look at each other and say, “Oh no. He’s two. Will we survive?”  The funny thing about two is that now Dutch is his own person.  Of course I’m stil his mommy who determines what he eats and wears, but now Dutch is in the gradual process of becoming his own little person.  Changing diapers and breastfeeding is really pretty easy when you think about it…disciplining, shaping character, and shepherding a child’s heart is another story.  The stakes get higher and higher.  I’ve never felt so inadequate in my life.  I’ve never felt so desperate for God’s grace and wisdom to somehow lead us every day.  My prayers over Dutch at night have transitioned from routine and well-formed to a desperate exhaling, a plea and cry for help from the One who is faithful to answer. 

I’m also more aware than ever that I have no guarantees how long I have my precious son. This weekend has seemed to be full of tragedy from every angle.  Tremendous loss has touched so many dear people in my life.  And I’m also aware that I will blink and Dutch will be grown.  I’m sure he will make obligatory calls to his mother, visiting at holidays and perhaps even kissing the top of my head from his own lofty height.  But someday I’ll no longer hear the cry “Mama mama!” as he runs through the hall. I won’t get to smell his amazing little kitten breath when I wake him up and kiss his face a dozen times.  My back won’t ache from picking him up 100 times a day.  I will no longer have Richard Scarry memorized.  I’m thankful for days like this, which help me remember that this incredibly short season is precious beyond words.  I pray for the grace to cherish it. 

So happy birthday, son.  I treasure you beyond words.  I could never imagine a son who would make me more proud.  I am honored to be your Mommy.  I love you little monkey.

How Prayer Works…I have no idea.  I don’t have any clue how God’s Sovereignty works with our responsibility to pray; how we can move the hand of God and yet He be totally sovereign over our every breath.  No idea.  Not a clue. And yet, somehow I know that prayer works, because God works.

Some of you know that today Dutch pulled boiling hot water off the counter all over himself.   In the split second it took me to pick him up I could see blisters already formed and broken open all over his forearm.  Then that silent moment that feels like an eternity right before he started screaming.  After getting him calmed down we checked him over and were amazed that the blistering was only on his forearm. We calmed him down, ran cold water all over his arm, making it into a game by doing the same with our arms, cut off his onesie, wrapped him in a blanket, then drove to the ER. 

I just have to say that it was amazing.  I texted several people for prayer and got my mom praying (which means all her little prayer warriors were praying too), and amazingly Dutch sat happily reading books at the hospital, only going crazy when they had to dress the burns.  We also had to praise God that we had our new car, with 4 wheel drive, because we were in the middle of a crazy snow storm, and there was no way we could have made it in our accord.   And, amazingly, once we got home Dutch never complained once. Then, on top of it all, we changed his dressing tonight and the burns are miraculously better. He still has bad blistering but the redness is drastically reduced, no swelling–it looked night and day better than before.  And he never even fussed as we changed his dressing.  Is that not a miracle?

All I know is that today God chose to work mightily through prayer on behalf of us and our little monkey. I don’t know how it works. I also heard of a horrible tragedy today in the life of a friend of mine. Why didn’t God answer those prayers in the way they hoped?  I don’t know.  I don’t understand how prayer works.  But today it did. Today God did.  And I’m so thankful for His graciousness to us today.  And thankful to those who prayed.

Jeff and I spent the morning in our slippers digging through boxes in the garage, looking for our Christmas tree stand while Dutch ran around in his jammies playing with a broken truck I’d tried to hide in the trash.  There are some disadvantages to moving every 6 mos. to a year as we have been in the habit of doing for the last 5.5 years.  In fact, there are more disadvantages than I will name.  (Can you tell I’m looking forward to moving somewhere and STAYING for a long time?)  One of the tricky things is that you begin to realize that unpacking everything you own is an enormous waste of time and energy.  So, you begin to simply store more and only unpack the absolute necessities.  And when you store stuff, you forget where it is.  I never thought we’d still be living here during the holidays, so our Christmas stuff is somewhere in the garage.  We decided to just skip getting a Christmas tree, but then my parents gave us one for free, even dropping it off at our house. How can you pass up putting up a tree that’s already in your garage?  Plus, it’s beautiful, and we’re hosting Dutch’s 2nd birthday party and Christmas Eve at our house.  So Jeff and I forged through the garage, in search of the Christmas tree stand.  It’s long gone.  Fortunately, everyone else is done buying Christmas supplies, so everything is 50% off everywhere. So $7 got us a CHristmas tree stand and now we have 2…somewhere. 

Storing also poses difficulties because of space constraints.  I miss my garage freezer, which is still at our home in McMinnville.  I’m a cook-ahead girl, because I don’t like last minute stress and I like to always have enough food for company. So I always cook ahead meals, bread, muffins, soup, cookies, so that when busy holiday times come, I’m prepared for whatever and whoever come our way.  But this year our space is super limited, so I can’t store up much in preparation for the holidays.  Storing up definitely has its challenges.

But this week I read about a different storing up.  And with this you never ever lose anything and there is no limit to the amount you can store up for later.  First Timothy 6:17-19 speaks to every person in America, the wealthiest nation in the world: 

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. 

I love that! Did you get that “take hold of that which is truly life.”  Isn’t that beautiful?  What is life?  Life is investing in eternity. That is living.  And our job, as wealthy Americans (and we all are), is to enjoy the things God gives us (not feel guilty about them), set our hope on God (not the economy), and to be generous and ready to share (open-hand and open-door).  This is how we store up treasure, which we will never lose.  This, friends, is truly life.  This is living.  This is taking hold of that which is truly life. 

In celebration of being done with school Jeff and I signed up for a free 2-week trial from NetFlix.  We will probably only get through 3 movies, though, since it takes us 2-3 nights to finish one whole movie.  By the time Dutch is in bed and we’re ready to watch it’s 8:30 and I’m lucky if I can make it to 9:30 without falling asleep. So, last night we finished watching The Bucket List.   Reflections on it deserve another entire post, but related to this topic, I was laying in bed last night thinking about what those two men thought was “truly life.”  Skydiving, experiencing the grandeur of the world, enjoying family, racing cars, eating caviar. All of those things are great. But truly living involves enjoying the goodness of God and storing up treasures for the life to come.  This is truly living, according to God’s Word.

And this is certainly applicable for this week, Christmas Week. How can you truly live this week? By freely enjoying everything God has given you.  This includes everything from corporate worship to hot cider by the fire.  This includes choosing to love instead of getting frustrated by family. This includes forgiving.  This includes stopping to savor that small slice of pumpkin pie (and perhaps choosing to stop at one slice!).  I pray that as we give, share, and enjoy God’s goodness, that everything we say and do this week would rise as worship to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who was and is and is to come.  Merry Christmas, friends.  Store up, and enjoy.

This morning I read 2 Thessalonians 3:16: “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way.  The Lord be with you all.”  World peace is what everyone wants.  Every Miss America contestant bats her eyelashes and tries to explain how she would bring world peace.  Even on a daily basis, we strive and long for peace in our marriages, homes, workplaces, families.  We battle for peace between the sexes, the races, the political parties.  And yet, more than ever, peace is lacking.  Depression is at an all-time high.  Stress characterizes our world.  And this season of Christmas, supposedly characterized by Peace of Earth, is one of the least peaceful times of the year. 

Pastor Joel humorously pointed out that this is the way we celebrate the Prince of Peace at Christmas:  we decide to throw more parties than we do during the entire rest of the year combined, jam-packing our schedules with activities.  We write a letter, take a photo, and spend tons of time and resources to send them to a hundred of our closest friends.  We bake treats feverishly for everyone we know.  We shop during every waking hour, racking up stressful credit card bills and decreasing our financial margin for the rest of the year.  And to top it off, we let the kids out of school so they can be home all the time!  How’s that for peace? 

I must say, however, that I love all of those things (except the credit card bill–we don’t go there).  I love baking, I love the parties, I love sending out Christmas letters. Honestly, Christmas isn’t stressful for me.  I do feel God’s peace. In fact, I love this time of year because for once the world is forced to at least somewhat think about what Christ has done for us. Even if they celebrate Kwanzaa or Festivus for the Rest-of-us, there remains the lurking reminder that Jesus is behind it all, no matter how hard we try to take Him out of it. We can call it “Winter Break” for the kids, but guess what holiday still remains at the center of this break.  The birthday of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Light of the World, Risen and Coming King. 

The world has a million and one ways to try to bring peace into our lives.  Candles, soothing music, massage, video games, TV and movies to unwind, yoga, meditation, wine, food, smoking…none of those things are bad (ok I think video games and smoking are both pretty bad), they’re just a temporary fix.  True peace, as we know, is only found in Christ.  And Scripture tells us that there are two kinds of peace–Peace with God, and the Peace of God. 

Peace with God is the greatest need of this world.  More than lower taxes, better schools, relief for world hunger, economic turnaround…our world needs peace with God.  We know from Scripture (Romans 5:1) those who do not know God, who have not received the gift of His Son Jesus through faith, are at war with God.  Not only are they against God, God is against them.  Imagine having God against you!  No thanks!  True peace is impossible until we are at peace with the One True and Living God.  Peace with God has nothing to do with feelings. It is a reality that you either have or do not have. You are for Him or against Him.  Are you at peace with God?

The Peace of God is more subjective and difficult to nail down. For those of us who are at peace with God, there is the possibility to have the Peace of God.  Philippians 4:6-7,9 tells us:

“Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, Rejoice…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus…What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me00practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” 

The peace of God is found through surrendering our lives to Him, obeying His commands, and laying up every need and request to Him, entrusting everything to His sovereign control.  This is the abundant life.  Have you ever met believers in Christ who still are anxious, worrying constantly, and trying always to control others?  These do not have the peace of God.  When we surrender up our lives to Him, we in essence say that God is in control and whatever He is doing is best.  Whatever He is doing is best.  That means that no matter what our economic state, no matter who is president, no matter what our home life is like, this peace if available to us.  This peace surpasses understanding. And this peace is real.  Do you have it?

We’re almost there.  As many of you know, the first six weeks of Jeff’s new job have overlapped with the last six weeks of Fall Semester, where he is taking a full load of classes including Greek II.  I was also finishing my class and internship.  We knew it’d be full, but also knew that you can do anything for six weeks, right?

I know I brag about my husband a lot on here, can I just do it one more time?  The last week and a half have been rough for me–I think our whole family is wearing thin in every area–sleep, patience, time.  Dutch has been missing his daddy, and kids seem to pick up on craziness. Last week Jeff had commitments almost every evening and Dutch would say cry “Dada” a hundred times at night.  He’s also definitely hit “the 2’s”, and while I love my son with all my heart, coupling his newfound personality (picture hitting and saying “No!” a thousand times a day), with being seven months pregnant, with a missing husband who’s up til all hours studying, with just an overflowing calendar (full of wonderful things!), by last night I was at the end of my rope.  When Jeff got home from work, he could see it, wonderful husband that he is. And even though he had at least five hours of work to do on a project due tomorrow, he insisted I take a 1/2 hour and go off somewhere, by myself, and regroup.  I hemmed and hawed, insisting I was fine, then finally gave in.  Oh the glory of 30 minutes by myself at Fred Meyer!  A $2 bottle of red nail polish and some ice cream…sometimes that’s all it takes. 🙂

So tonight I’m sure Jeff will pull an all-nighter after our staff Christmas Party, but tomorrow he will turn in his final project and be DONE!! DONE! DONE!  He won’t graduate, but he’s taking a year off to focus on his job and his family (that’s me!), and then only take one class each term after that, which is definitely doable.

I’m so proud of him, and of Dutch, for persevering through these last six weeks… We’re almost there, Hon.  You can do it!

As I’ve mentioned before, Dutch loves books.  He would be happy sitting next to me on the couch, all day long, reading and re-reading his favorite books.  One of his favorites is called Welcome is a Wonderful Word.  It’s about a little girl named Jenny and her friends Nicholas and Sam and dog Shags, who love to dress up and play pretend.  When a new family moves into their neighborhood, they want to make friends with the little girl Mei Sue.  But Mei Sue is too shy to open the door, so they put together a grand “welcome wagon” full of all sorts of dress-up treasures–hats and shoes, a baseball glove and fishing pole…their very best and favorite things.  Mei Sue is so overjoyed they all become friends and have a cookie and lemonade party.  The last page (which I have memorized because we’ve read it so many times) reads:

Mei Sue said, “I was sad when I had to move away from my old home, but you have made me feel welcome!”

“Welcome,” Jenny said, “is a wonderful word, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Nicholas agreed.

“The best,” Sam said.  And Shags let out a loud and happy bark. 

I must say I agree with Jenny.  Welcome is a wonderful word.  The last six weeks have been a series of beautiful examples to me of just how wonderful welcome can be.  For those of you who’ve read The Road to Santa Clara, you know about our welcome down in sunny California…or lack thereof.  It’s funny how I distinctly remember thinking, “Maybe they’ll bake us some cookies or something.”  How without saying it in so many words, I longed to be welcomed.  And I think that (among plenty of other things) was what stung the most when we arrived. Not only did the pastor not remember we were coming, no one else had a clue, the random bachelors still lived in our apartment, and not a single person in the church had any idea we were even arriving.  Then the whole firing-us-before-we-even-started thing wasn’t exactly welcoming either :-).  But that whole experience gave me a taste of how painful it is to feel distinctly unwelcome.  Since then I must say I’ve had a few other unwelcoming experiences. Not so blatant, but subtle messages that conveyed the very clear reality–watch out, you’re not welcome here. 

I could never have even fathomed the welcome we would receive here at WCC.  I hate to even write this, but some people have the impression that people in West Linn are snobby.  I have never met a less-snobby group of people in my life, hands down.  From the very first day Jeff and I set foot there, we have been nothing but welcomed, even before we were hired.  So it’s not just because Jeff is the associate pastor, we were welcomed while we were “nobodies”.  Does that make sense?

And since being hired, I cannot even convey how amazingly loved we have felt. From the incredibly personalized, generous compensation, to notes and welcome hugs from all the staff, to a Meet and Greet party with all the staff, to a “Get to Know the Pattersons” party for all the young couples to gather together so we could get to know people (thrown by an elder and his wife who have absolutely nothing to gain from it–just selflessly extending love and hospitality), to just the amazing respect and honor that has been shown to Jeff.  God has used this experience to heal deep wounds in my heart.  I could never have imagined feeling this welcomed and loved. And we think welcoming is such a small thing. We think that job of Greeter at church is not a big deal.  It is a huge deal. How we welcome each other conveys the love of Christ in profound ways.

And isn’t this what we’re exhorted to do in Scripture?   I’ve been amazed recently realizing how many times Paul exhorts his churches to receive so-and-so, or greet or welcome or honor someone bearing a letter or visiting the church.  Jesus tells us to greet not just those in high position, but everyone, for in doing so we minister to Christ Himself.  I have probably been accused of being too exuberant sometimes, or of using too many exclamation points in my writing (!!!!!!–there!), but I just have to say that our welcome here at WCC has been one with many exclamation points following it.  It was been a “Welcome!!!!!!”

So  now when I read Dutch his book, it touches me in a different way.  When I see Jenny and her friends preparing a welcome wagon for Mei Sue, I can’t help but reflect on the welcome wagon we have received, and how honoring it is to God when we give our very best toys to create a welcome wagon just for someone else.  Oh how we minister to one another in this way.  Welcome is a wonderful word indeed.