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Christmas Past

Elisabeth — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:37:55 +0000

Once upon a time, my Christmases really were like Victorian greeting cards. Back when all ten of us lived in one house, when everyone bought presents for everyone else. (With a little help from our mom, if necessary). There were the secrets in the closet, the anticipation of seeing this person’s face when they saw that thing. Making stockings for our parents. The funny little gifts the littlest children came up with. The hugs. Eating cinnamon rolls and reading the Nativity story together.

Now Christmas isn’t so predictable.

Sometimes I’m with my family; sometimes I’m thousands of miles away.

Sometimes I have a Christmas tree. Sometimes I don’t.

And sometimes I have a carol-singing joyride to Jaffa Gate, Jerusalem, to get one – only to learn that my housemates are allergic, and gleefully give it away to friends who have none.

Sometimes it’s shirtsleeves weather, cypress wreaths, and stone houses. Sometimes it’s the real fragrance of evergreen, and a real white Christmas…

(And once, there was snow in Jerusalem, just two days after Christmas).

Sometimes it’s long on adventure and short on stuff. Like the year my stocking arrived in a tiny box at the post office – and I spent Christmas eve and Christmas morning exploring Bethlehem on foot.

Or the year we got all ten of our selves to Israel for Christmas – and not much else.

Christmas Eve was carols in Jerusalem; Christmas breakfast was pancakes, pomegranates, Swedish tea, Mexican hot chocolate – and the Nativity story.

Sometimes strings of Christmas lights help me feel Advent-wonder. Sometimes it’s Hanukkah candles.

Either way, I know it’s due to the mighty acts of God that there was a Jewish nation into which my Savior could be born. I know it’s thanks to my stubborn, greedy grasp on my own way that He had to lay aside His glory and became the smallest, most invisible form of human life…

Be born ignominiously. Raised in obscurity. Rejected, killed, and ALIVE.

And I know He did it all for sheer joy.

Based on my Christmases past, I know I can’t count on who I’ll have with me, where I’ll be, what I’ll receive, or how I will feel. But one thing is always certain: He is.

He is.

He is Emmanuel.

And God-with-us. Is with me.

Streams in the Desert

Elisabeth — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 16:45:00 +0000

Just imagine…

You are awakened at 4 am by the yowling prayer call, and jump out of bed to awaken the others. Grabbing a yogurt, a water bottle, and your sunglasses, you hurry through the pre-dawn streets towards Cafe Aroma. It’s still closed, but you join fellow students on the steps and are regaled with odd stories by a sleepless – and gregarious – college student who happens to be a complete stranger. At last the tour bus arrives, and you are whisked two centuries away.

Climbing the rock-strewn slope below the cliffs, you greet the sun with hymns and psalms and simple words of testimony. Afterwards, you are immersed in the story of a reclusive group who truly sought to live with clean hands and a pure heart.

However, the sun continues to rise, and even your genuine interest is roasted slowly and inexorably out of your head as you are caught between pale stones and bright sun. Your yogurt was assimilated 2,000 years before, and you eagerly await the long-promised meal.

At last, you return to the twenty-first century for five delicious minutes, as your air-conditioned bus takes you to the site next door.

All the paraphanelia of a meal lugged tablewards, you sit down to a picnic served on pottery, and your brain returns just in time for exploration.

So you cross quaking black mud and step into an oasis, where crystal water nourishes tamarisks and palms and even tiny fish. You cross branching streams, touch sprays of waxy blooms, and glimpse wild donkeys in the distance.

Did you have any idea that cool Ein Feshka was next door to blazing Qumran?

Hope you find streams in the desert today.

- by Elisabeth A.

More quotes from Michael Phillips

Natalie Nyquist — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:23:00 +0000

After the intense articles published in the last couple weeks, we are going to take a breather for a few days with some lighter fare. But the first few weeks of March should prove fun: I (Natalie) am going to visit Lanier and we will do our best to write some joint posts! When I get back I’ll start some posts on life the past six months. – Natalie

“The Lord knows best. It is in His grand design how He orders families. Nothing comes by chance. Everything is to a purpose.”

“That does not alter the fact that the Lord’s hand is on you. His life is in you, and His loving design is still over Stonewycke and all that lies in its future. You do not have to feel that everything rests upon you. It doesn’t. It rests with the Lord our God. We can trust Him to guide our steps, and to do good. He can do no other.”

“Everyone knows that politicians are nothing but legalized con men! You’d be a natural at it, old boy.”

“How can you be so reasonable…and so right?”

“When I question the Lord concerning it, He repeatedly drives me back to the principle in Scripture of the desert as symbolizing the purifying time of preparation… I believe God uses those times of exile to strengthen the legacy of what this family has come to represent, to deepen within us our love for the land, and especially to cement our faith in a mighty and loving God.”

From Treasure of Stonewycke by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella:

The Gentleman in the Pith Helmet – Part Two

Elisabeth — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 19:21:00 +0000

Here are a few ways that God prepared me to be an ambassador for Him without my realizing it…and a few ways that I want Him to help me further.

1. Keeping track of the process by which God led me and then actually got me here. It helps when things get bumpy.

2. My relationship with my spiritual authority (in this case my daddy) has been my lifeline in the middle of the battle.

3. Keeping up correspondance with two or three trusted, praying friends has been a huge encouragement.

4. All of the times when I managed to practice being a spiritual self-feeder (ie Seeking God myself, and not just relying on others’ relationships with God). Sharing lessons with you is a great motivator to learn myself!

5. Getting to know the people around me at home and finding ways to bear their burdens. I had to learn to be sensitive, but not shy: God gives everybody, including me, something to offer to others, and I had to practice sharing it.
6. Cultivating flexibility. I’m learning that I don’t need a particular food, home, friend, job, etc. to be happy…not because they aren’t good, but because Jesus is with me. I didn’t have to worry about making up opportunities to practice flexibility – God sends plenty. All I have to do is embrace the ones I have.

7. Learning how to have fun! Yes, fun. Noticing the little things that God sends me every day just because He loves me, knows what I like, and wants to make me happy. It helps to take lessons from kids on this one.
8. Having a practical relationship with the Holy Spirit. Just recognizing that: I don’t have all the answers, that He does, that He knows how to communicate with even thick-headed me…and then asking Him to lead me and expecting that He will (and sometimes without my even knowing it until later).

9. Not trying to be spiritual. Yes, God wants me to grow, but it’s a process. It takes time. I can’t get frustrated with myself in the process, but instead, just have it as my aim to walk with Jesus no matter what..while seeking a conviction of His ridiculously, amazingly big love for me and then sitting on it, hard.

10. Just being. Being real through and through. Being joyfully, unapologetically what God wants me to be. This is what attracts people the most. They can tell genuine from fake, and they are incredibly hungry for the real thing: somebody who knows God and really lives the Bible. It helps to find out why I do something I’ve been taught to do. If I discover that it is Biblical but I still don’t like it, I can talk to God. He understands, He’s in the business of heart-changing, and He’s good at it.

- Posted by Elisabeth A.

Merry Christmas!

Natalie Nyquist — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 16:19:00 +0000

Because of a combination of computer troubles (I’m limping on a diff computer since my main one can’t get online, I don’t have access to my cache of posts I had ready) and the business of my brother’s birthday and Christmas, I am saying goodbye until December 26th. Have a wonderful Christmas–enjoy your family, worship the Savior. Come back ready for some really exciting happenings here at the YLCF!