The Big One

My beautiful wife celebrated her birthday today! Not much fanfare, just a simple family dinner which means we had as much food as we have at Thanksgiving. The best part about Cyd's birthday for me is that for a few months I get to be married to an older woman! I've been at almost as many birthdays as I missed out on before we started dating. We were talking just the other day about the fact that we don't really remember life before each other. I can honestly say that is a wonderful feeling! Birthdays are another day that reminds us to be thankful to God for the breath of a new day.

New Things

I was working on my lesson for The Gathering and I was reminded again about the amazing way God weaves redemption into nature and the world around us. 2 Corinthians 5:17 talks about being new creations in Christ...the best example of that to me is the way the caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Yesterday Claire and I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar together. It is a simple book that illustrates a common occurrence in nature, but it offers profound insight into the way God looks at our old self and our new self. The caterpillar, a creature that most people don't think very highly of, but God takes that creature and forms a beautiful new butterfly out of it. What a picture of God's redemptive work in our lives to take the our broken lives before Christ and make them whole in Christ! He takes something not so pretty, even downright ugly and makes something beautiful and grace-filled out of it.

Family Portrait

Our attempt at a family portrait at Tybee this weekend. My mom did a good job with the camera but it's kinda hard to get all four of us looking the same direction let alone smiling. This was also after Claire fell trying to climb a sand dune and got "stickers" in both hands and both feet, so really this is a pretty darn good picture, all things considered.

Claire and Charlotte

Some photos of the girls at Tybee.

Wisdom from the Past

The old hymn writer, William Cowper, once wrote these words
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after rain.

Perhaps in your life difficulties have sprung up like the weeds in my flower bed and before they can be picked the rain has come to make them grow even more. Don't worry, the sun always comes out after the rain. Sometimes the rain is brief like a south Georgia, summer thunderstorm and other times it is several days of downpour, know that he will grant your soul rest again.

Amazing Grace

Early this summer I finished a book by Kathleen Norris entitled Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. In the book she recounts her own journey of being exposed to Christianity early in life through grandparents but walking away from God in college as she embarked on a literary career. Later in life, through a great deal of pain, she came back to faith. As someone who was on the inside of the church with an eye like those on the outside she decided to reflect on some of the common terms one hears in the church. Her insight is inspiring as she looks at matters of faith. She challenges people to rethink what some familiar terms mean and gives new life to ancient words. There were many passages that I underlined and noted, but I will only share one with you.

One so often hears people say, "I just can't handle it," when they reject a biblical image of God as Father, as Mother, as Lord or Judge; God as lover, as angry or jealous, God on a cross. I find this choice of words revealing, however real the pain they reflect: if we seek a God we can "handle," that will be exactly what we get. A God we can manipulate, suspiciously like ourselves, the wideness of whose mercy we've cut down to size. (p. 214)

First Things

Tonight was a night of first things. I'm not referring to the old Foreigner song, nor the excellent journal, First Things. I am referring to a couple of milestones met by the Pagliarullo women tonight. Claire got her first bloody nose! She was playing in the backyard when she fell and hit her face hard enough to cause a mild nose bleed. Charlotte gave me her first high five! I've been working with her for weeks now, but she couldn't ever quite get the hang of it. Tonight was different...in fact I got not just one high five but two. When all was said and done tonight both girls were happy and well loved!