Seeing Abraham through ten-year-old eyes

Some interesting spellings of my name

Last week at Benjamin Camp we were learning about ‘Who is God and how can we get to know Him?' The lessons, the songs, the crafts and the activities were all focused on the theme. It was exciting to see how the kids wrestled with the concepts and were not afraid to voice their questions. Even more exciting was seeing how the lessons were impacting their daily lives at camp.
While there, I ‘saw Abraham’. In Belgium and the Netherlands the saying is that when someone turns 50 they have ‘seen Abraham’ (or Sara if it is a woman). A life-sized doll is made of an old man and placed in front of the door with a poem about the person who is celebrating the birthday. This all comes from the text in John 8:56-58. After Jesus mentions that Abraham looked forward to his coming, the Jews remark that this is impossible. How could Jesus have seen Abraham if he were not even yet 50?

Of course, I was not at home, so there was not going to be a old-man doll at my door. I was at camp with 20 kids who were barely 10 years old. But these kids wanted to make this a special day for me. So they filled the camp postbox with notes for me, reminding me of how thankful they were that I was here. They sang for me and presented me with a crown made of balloons (which I had to wear all day – a uniquely humbling experience). The cook had made a cake so that we could celebrate. And that evening during the talent show, the kids sang for me again. 

Interestingly, in John the idea is that the Jews did NOT accept Jesus for who he was. They did not believe that he saw Abraham. And because they didn’t believe who Jesus was, they did not see His glory and His salvation. But these kids who were looking at how to know God knew the love of Jesus as a practical application to life. We had been learning the thought: ‘Do for others what you would like done to yourself’ (also in a new song). And they showed just that.

Getting to know God in this way is a great way to celebrate my birthday – growing in what really counts for eternity. 

Taming the fire

The recent Waldo Canyon fire
 which threatened Colorado Springs

The tongue is a fire. Especially in our day and age. We all feel we can just twitter what we want into the ether and no one will be the worse off. Even more, the world will be better because I have put a bit of me out there. And since it rolled from my tongue, it must be valuable. I am simply being me.

We work with people from various cultures, but basically two: Belgian (which is actually at least two cultures) and Dutch. One of the major differences we experienced from the moment we first came to the Netherlands (as a campaign group 30 years ago!) was the difference in how the Dutch view what is said. Rude or honest? Am I being myself or caring for others? Where do we draw the line? The Belgians might not say anything, but they will be thinking it. So their Yes may actually be No. Is this honest? The question is really, how am I using my tongue?

In our current world of instant ‘communication’ it has become commonplace to simply say what is thought, to let drop whatever comes to the tip of the tongue. Is this communication, or are we simply talking into space? Since this has always been one of my major struggles, I recognize it in the world around me. James has some choice advice for us all: ‘Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.’ (James 1:19) 

Speak to one another

I love singing. Singing is the way that God has given us to combine thought with feeling and communicate that to one another, to Him and to ourselves. And communal worship singing is the best of all. It is here that we experience family in the presence of God.

I am thankful that I have had the opportunity many times in my life to expereince communal worship singing in multiple languages. I have no idea in which language we will sing when we kneel before the throne, but it is thrilling to be able to share this beauty and truth with others, even when we have difficulty communicating the simplest things (how do you talk about your hometown or your family in Croatian, or Korean, or French?). We can sing of our love for God, of our joy in His grace, of our burning desire to be His in all we do and say. And with a bit of translating in the beginning, we all know that we are sharing this thought and feeling.

Every first Wednesday of the month the church in Maastricht gets together to sing – learn new songs, learn about singing, share our thoughts in song. The group from Liége (Luik) usually joins us for the evening. Last weekend they organized an evening of singing with Robert McCready and his students from Harding. Glorious! And last evening was the last Wednesday evening in Maastricht until September (after our camp weeks). It was a wonderful evening together, although we missed some who are often there. But we will see them again too – and we will sing together to the glory of God, in any language, forever!

The putty birds

God wants us to get hurt. Last week I talked about the need to be able to fail safely. Let me explain the other side of this by looking at a problem we have down at our Bible camp in the Ardennes. Birds are eating the putty from around our new windows. (I assume they are using this in making nests –  a good use of modern technology? But that’s another post entirely.) The best way to stop this is to put a toxic substance (varnish) on the putty. Other options I have read include blocking off the windows, not using windows, or providing more food for the birds so that they hopefully will not go for your putty (which means that you get fat birds pecking the putty anyway).

Bird-lovers might not like the toxic answer. Birds will get sick and perhaps die because of the substance they are ingesting. And yet, this is the best way to save the other birds. If the few who first tried this died, the rest would not take over the learned behaviour. And it is learned behaviour. They do not need the putty. Only some birds do this.

God wants us to get hurt! Well, he is willing to allow us to get hurt. If we didn’t and were always bailed out of all our difficult situations, then we would never learn how to stop, never learn what the consequences of our actions are. If there is no consequence to an action, then I will think all is okay and will learn and teach this to others who will then also be in danger. It is better that we suffer consequences and teach others that this behaviour is not good.

We are not birds. You can’t put a warning on window putty telling the birds that this is not good for them. But to be honest, most birds don’t even do it. It is the few that are either bold enough (or dumb enough) to try something new, different, dangerous (because unknown) who will do this.

But we do have warnings. There are plenty of literal warnings on all sorts of materials and activities in our lives today. Smoking will kill you. Don’t use the lawn mower to trim the hedges. Don’t stick your hand in the trash disposal of the sink while it is running. Eating too much sugar will rot your teeth.

And those are just the normal warnings concerning everyday things and activities. There are more important concerns if we want to really live well and happy, live fully. God gives us warnings about our spiritual life.

Will we listen? If not, will we learn from the consequences? And if we will not, will others learn who observe the consequences in our lives?

When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:20-23)