Finding the Perfect Gift

Ah, December, the month of gift-giving. Family asks me for gift suggestions and I want to be helpful but I really can't come up with much of a list. I want to give thoughtful gifts to family and don't seem to have much of a gift imagination. So do I ask what someone wants and give it to them ruling out any surprise? And if it's a category gift like "sweater" . . . my ideas of style and color don't often turn out to be anything more than a need for the receiver of the gift to return it next month. To just give a check and say . . . "pick out what you would like" doesn't seem to fill out what a personal, thoughtful, loving , meaningful gift is. Anybody else struggle with this? I don't know about you but I am envious of those people who seem to be able to come up with a gift for someone that is "just right!" I'm thankful for a wife that is sooooo much better at this than I am and the family benefits from that blessing.

But this is such an easy segue to think about the Reason or Gift behind our gift giving. Our felt needs are seldom our real needs when it comes to the most important area of our lives. We have no trouble asking for things, wanting to get certain gifts but it can never even occur to us to ask for the most-needed gift. Who needs that? Can we in truth not ask for, or even be aware of, what we need most? I think the answer is "yes." Does the Gift-giver need to work in us to know what we need? Yes. Ever since the Garden, we have been sure we know what we need and we want what we need, we will be unhappy without it and we will even die if we don't get it; i. e., what we want. I mean who could better know what we need than we ourselves?! Indeed, Who?

There is One Who has not only imagined the Perfect Gift, knows what we really need, gift-wrapped and unwrapped the Perfect Gift but still opens our eyes to see the need, the love behind it and the perfection of the Gift and open our arms and hearts to receive Him. Maybe at the heart of it, Christmas is the Perfect Gift finding us!

Now there is a Gift for us to think about and treasure while we seek in stores and online to find gifts for people we love.

Join us in a never-ending season of thinking about the perfect Gift for us; the Gift that keeps on giving us the knowledge that all we really need, all we really want, we have in this Gift . . . the Perfect Gift!

Please also join us in the gift of preparing for and traveling to Asia in January to talk about this Gift with others. Thank you again for joining in this with us by your gifts and prayers.

THOUGHTS ON A TOADSTOOL AND A TREE

A number of times and years ago now, Bonnie and I had the privilege of taking couples in ministry on an outdoor adventure. We went by sea kayaks to an island off the coast of Maine to camp and think biblically about the sufficiency and grittiness of grace for marriage and ministry.

One trip included a lot of rain and just outside our tent we watched a toadstool grow. It appeared overnight and seemed to grow and balloon to full size in a matter of hours. A misstep in the dark that night mashed and smashed it.

In John’s Island, South Carolina lives an oak tree that is thought to have sprouted from an acorn 1000 years before Columbus arrived in the “new world.” It has a circumference of nearly 25 feet and has survived countless hurricanes, floods, and earthquakes. Yes, strength and endurance do come to mind when one thinks of an oak tree!

While reading and preparing for some teaching, I came across a Scripture that caused this “collateral thought” which I’m sharing with you for this month’s blog about more than botany, but a botanical metaphor to encourage us spiritually.

Following the passage with which our Lord chose to inaugurate His public ministry (Isa. 61) is the remarkable thought that those who had been exiled with the accompanying grief, mourning and despair would be called, here it is, “oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of His splendor” (Isa. 61:3c).

I have no trouble thinking of myself as a spiritual toadstool that can puff up, swell with the moisture of pride rapidly. This inflated importance is so fragile and so quickly can be squashed by a careless misstep (a reality step we could say). I much prefer the thought of being an oak tree with its durable, tough and attractively-grained wood that is resistant to insects.

It doesn’t have to stay there as a wish, a “prefer,” a wistful fungal longing. The LORD is in the business of making toadstools into trees, oak trees of righteousness even. This is so clearly His work. We are His planting, dependent on His grace to transform us. Our time in the “forest” of this life is the time He is doing this miraculous, grace-filled work and His work is marvelous in our eyes.

The growth into an oak is much slower and more complicated but in the end the purpose of our lives is not to try to stay safe as fragile toadstools in the here and now but become a forever, attractively-grained oak of righteousness for His splendor and glory and to shout to all the other toadstools: “Look what the Redeemer/Botanist alone can do! Why He can grow toadstools into trees!” Let’s remember who we are, the purpose of life, whose we are, and what He is growing us into for His splendor and glory!

Growing because of Him,

Keith and Bonnie

“BY THE LIGHT OF THE SILVERY MOON”

I hope you will join us in thinking about hope and moonlight a bit this month. Upcoming ministry trips to Africa, Asia and South America and recent life experiences (see family update) become “excuses” and reasons to get the mind and heart “in gear.” This month’s blog will share a little of the motion or movement now that we’re in the “car,” in gear and backing out of the garage. Please do keep praying for the preparation that precedes any trip; for the learning that must precede any teaching.

Our life here and now, everything we see and think about, blind us to the reality of heaven. Isn’t that strange . . . what we see keeps us from seeing? But it is more complicated --- our realities, which are closer to appearances and won’t last, make it virtually impossible to see the only Reality that lasts forever. We all think that death is the end of life, what could be more real than that?! No wonder we desperately want to go on living as long as possible! We begin life with hopes, lots of them. But aren’t our hopes for such things as happiness, comfort, success, pleasure? Notice that all these hopes are anchored solidly in the here and now and what must happen, if it will ever happen, is to have these hopes realized before we get old, before the end of life, before we die! No, I don’t think there is much encouragement to exchange our present hope for “the blessed hope.” But our hopes take us to disappointment and death don’t they? The blessed hope takes us through the suffering and disappointments of life, holds us in and through them, and makes death not an end but the beginning of a forever life in the presence of the One we do not now see and in whose mysterious ways we fail to see His wisdom or love. Here is where the moon comes in.

At night we see the light of the moon. Clouds can hide it and sometimes we don’t see it at all but it’s there and every time we see it we realize we aren’t really seeing any moonlight but borrowed sunlight, reflected light of the sun.

Hope is hard at “night.” Some times we see some light, but morning comes and when the sun rises, the light is not to be denied. It gloriously blazes away the darkness. We need the moon to keep helping us see the sun “at night” even indirectly, until the day comes and hope becomes sight. Be encouraged by the moonlight and anticipate the sunrise. Because the Son did rise there is hope of a new day, an eternal day with no longer any need for moonlight or hope or even the sunlight . . . “the city does not need the sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light . . . “ (Rev. 21:23).

Until then, through the suffering and uncertainty and bewildering events of life, we live knowing the importance of hope. Until then, may we enjoy and be deeply ministered to by the light of the silvery moon and sunrises.

Actively waiting in hope with you,

Keith and Bonnie

“I want to be a ‘Rice Christian’ don’t you?”

Sometimes well-meaning people have used rice, i. e., food or material benefits as an incentive to convert to Christianity. Those who convert for such reasons have been called "rice Christians." Obviously such conversions last about as long as the rice lasts. I would like to turn this pejorative phrase into a provocative phrase for our blog this month and describe a very different kind of "rice Christian." Come with us to Asia as we tell you about some “rice Christians” with a supernatural staying power we have met, admire, love and for whom we pray.

Travel to the island of Luzon with us and be prepared to drop your jaw as our eyes move from a valley floor to over 3000 feet in the air with rice growing everywhere. Behold the Benaue rice terraces! If the terraces were placed end to end they would circle half way around the globe. The American Society of Civil Engineers awarded this 2000 plus year old project with its International Historic Engineering Landmark Award. It has been called by the non-engineering types simply, the “8^th Wonder of the World.”

Imagine the work involved in the making and ongoing repair of the terraces and the tapping and channeling of springs and streams for irrigation. Imagine just getting to and from your “fields” daily. Then there is the back-breaking work of planting the rice. With your bundle of seedlings in hand you plant each plant one by one. The harvesting is incredibly labor intensive too. The cutting and drying and raking and bagging of rice is amazing. The Ifugaos have our respect and admiration as the makers and keepers and harvesters of the Benaue Rice Terraces.

But 2000 years ago when these terraces were being built another harvest began as the Spirit of God worked through the Word of God and "the Greatest Wonder of Wonders in this World" began and continues! There are Christians who work as hard with their minds and hearts and yes even their bodies to learn the Ifugao language and translate the Word into that language and work and keep working and praying for a harvest. We know Christians who plant and work as “rice workers” and "rice Christians" in the Philippines. They have and are doing the difficult and demanding work of translation, as rice workers, with their feet in the mud and back in the sun and heart and mind and soul in the Word. They are, it seems to us, “rice Christians,” laboring as terrace builders, rice planters in difficult places praying for the Lord to bring a harvest through His Word.

Would you join us in praying this month for all the Wycliffe and national translators and their families laboring in the Philippines? Would you join with us in praying for plans to return to give some pastoral care and encouragement to these “rice Christians” in the Philippines this fall? Would you join us in praying that the Lord make us and you like these “rice Christians” wherever in the world we are? kg

Additional pictures on June post page.

When we last posted, we were fresh with a move for my mother. Now we are fresh with the realization that my Mother’s earthly journey is complete! The days following have been ones of grieving the loss and celebrating her Arrival! I remembered and shared at her service where we sang the words together, Oh that will be glory for me when by His grace I shall look on His face...” that she had asked me if I thought it was sacrilegious to say “Whoopee!” “No, not at all I told her,” to which she replied, “Well then, you tell them I said that!"

Earlier we had been with our son and family in Israel and our grandson sat beside the grave at the Garden Tomb. Overhead nearby on the door the sign reads He is not here! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed! How great is our Hope because of what was accomplished on the cross!

Check out the pages (top right side) for more details.

Little did we know when we posted a month ago, how much we would be looking at "Home" though the eyes of my Mother. Yesterday, she left her apartment in Lancaster County under the power not of big black iron wheels of an Amish carriage powered by the draw of a horse, but by the power of other wheels, black, but not so big, of her wheel chair. In a moment, just one moment, she left one home and was escorted upstairs to a new one where she will receive necessary care. The old apartment was now messy from the uprooting and packing of the days before. The new one awaited with most of her favorite things in place, neat and in order and lovely. But soon I suspect, she will be moving again - this time for her real Home. She is looking forward to that day and asked me if it was sacrilegious to say, "Whopppie!!" at the thought. No, not at all!

Keith had shared with her on Sunday the gist of the sermons he had the privilege of sharing at Westminster these last two weeks (www.westpca.com). As a visual aid, he had drawn a pair of eye glasses with the bottom half darkened; the kind used in therapy at times with autistic children, forcing them to look up and out and around, rather than just down. Likewise my Mother appreciated the reminder of our focus on the unseen reality, living today with an eye on Eternity. Paired contrasting words in the text (2 Cor. 4: 16-18) - inward/outward; wasting away/renewed; slight - encourage us not to lose heart!

momentary/heavy eternal; seen/unseen! To "fix" is to see with concentrated attention! So we fix our eyes on Jesus as we wait with her to be with Jesus - at just the right time!

Our March trip to the Philippines will now probably be our fall trip to the Philippines! In the meantime we have much work at hand with Barnabas and are scheduled to be teaching the final class on the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course in Florida in April, challenging the attendees to "broaden their perspective and to understand the teamwork that is necessary for us to do the work God has called us to do well." We did make it to Israel for a delightful time together with Jonathan and Jennifer and three of our grandchildren. More to come on that....

"Wandering Home"

There is such a place as “home!” We long for it and are heading there by grace! We are increasingly coming to believe and accept that this world is not home. In fact, all the transitions and changes in this world and in our bodies help us slowly “get that!” Yet “home” truly is the last word in this title phrase and in our lives.

The first word “wandering” draws attention to the way we get home. It is not by a straight and rapid road. It is not a smooth road paved only with pleasure and happiness. The word “wander” has plenty of room for roam;

~for my doubts concerning my Shepherd/Leader and His ways, mixed with murmuring,

~for my propensity to prefer my paths, with my faithlessness demonstrated at many a turn.

The word “wandering” magnifies the truth of my sin and His grace. It makes it clear that I am not going the quickest and most direct path but I will arrive, we will arrive, for one and only one reason . . . Him and His grace!

We’re eager to share both where He takes us at this stage of our lives and some of our thoughts about His grace for the journey, and thoughts of home as we wander there under the wise and sometimes confusing leading and direction of our Shepherd. That which fills us with holy delight, is that our wandering in some strange and glorious “God-way,” becomes part of His appointed way to take us home!

This will be a place for you to come monthly and read and see something of our wandering home. Bonnie and I plan to alternate writing a reflective piece each month and there will be a few images by my favorite photographer.

Our reason for doing this is to stay meaningfully connected to you who have journeyed with us already and we hope you will share with us ways we can pray and support you as you pray for and support us.

Our blog begins in the first month of this New Year, 2011 and will continue in February. Hope you will come see us again as we all journey through this life.