~ consider the lilies of the field ~

Shrubs for Sale

Posted May 17th, 2013 by Jen in family life
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These are my genius children: Dig up grass clumps from the back of the property, place them in pots, offer them for $1 each, and talk Dad into buying all of the beautiful shrubbery. #entrepreneurs (But Dad, for that dollar, does require the children to transplant the “ornamental grasses” up near the house and demands a refund if they fail to thrive…)

The Remarkable Thing About Motherhood

Posted May 6th, 2013 by Jen in family life
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It’s the small moments.

It’s this little note that warmed my heart like that flame she lit.

It’s the Mardi Gras beads, strung out on the sparkling granite no less than the stars strung across the universe, that arrangement of letters that only a child of mine can say in all its fullness.

The remarkable thing about motherhood is this: a sacredness in the ordinary, everyday acts of life, and motherhood requires both a child and a woman, both giving and taking–and extending the exquisite thing begun by God in Eve, and now even me.

The First in 1000 Years

Posted April 22nd, 2013 by Jen in france/french, persecuted church, politics/world news, religion
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Imagine being the first person in your family tree in 1,000 years to do something radically different?

I was reading about Christian missions in France and read this story which completely arrested me:

Between the Children’s hour and the Ladies Bible study that Sherrylee was going to speak to, we had 30 minutes. Sherrylee had accidentally wandered into a neighbor’s house, thinking it was part of the church building. . . . ., but it turned out that this neighbor had been baptized a couple of years ago, so as Craig was explaining to the neighbor why Sherrylee had walked into his house, he invited us in for tea and cookies. Khered (?) is his name and he is Algerian. He and his wife want to return someday to Algeria, which could be a great opportunity to carry the Good News with him. He says he is the first Christian in his family in over one thousand years! Think about that!

Algeria, with a population of over 37 million, is the largest country in Africa, bordered in the north by the Mediterranean Sea. Today Islam is the official state religion and about 99% of the population follow Sunni Muslim.

What was happening for over a thousand years to prevent this first Christian’s ancestors from knowing Jesus? What wasn’t happening?! Algeria’s history is one of invasion after invasion: the Phoenicians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines, and then, the prolonged invasions of over 1,000 years of the Muslim armies from Cairo (642-1830) which set the course of the nation. More invasions followed, the Spanish, the Ottomans, the French. But that 1,000 year reign of Muslim expansion could not be undone.

But perhaps we are beginning to see the dawning of a new era. A French-Algerian who is the first in his family to be called Christian in a millennium? The gates of Hell shall not prevail.