with jesus in the boat you can swim with sharks

As we ate our breakfast this morning Cadence exclaimed, "look daddy! My apples look like boats!"

I replied, "that's crazy!" "No. It's not crazy. It's awesome! Because Jesus was in the boat with his disciples," she retorted.

"Oh yeah..." I say.

With her eyes widening and eyebrows lifted she went on with her story. Raising her arms to the sky, "and the rains came down." Lowering her hands to the ground and lifting them while she spoke, "and the waves came UP!" Waving her arms in circles above her head, "and there were rain clouds sending down water."

"And you know what Jesus did?" She asked excitedly. Without waiting for a reply she went on ending with a yell..."He said to the rain STOP!"

With that flourish she ended her story.

"But what happened after Jesus said that?" I inquired.

"They all fall into the water."

"Who?"

"Jesus and his friends fell into the water and went swimming. And there were SHARKS!"

I love these kinds of stories.

www wanderings 02.17.2010

Lent:

It's Ash Wednesday. If you'd like a scripture guide through the next forty days, you can go here to join what many Christians around the world are engaging with. There are some quality prayers and artwork links as well (the pic on the right came from there). If you're at Stillmeadow, I'd recommend the FaithForward Guide that we are using for our community. We gave it out on Sunday and it's available at the welcome desk.

Stillmeadow's on Twitter!

Our church is checking out what it looks like to be a presence on twitter. We'll see how this goes...but it could be fun. If you want to follow, click here or just go to www.twitter.com/stillnaz.

Child Soldiers and American Slave Trade:

Learned from Project AK-47 (follow on Twitter) that one third of the world's child soldiers are in South East Asia. They say "100,000 kids are carrying machine guns" in this region.

Then Relevant posted a study which showed that Ohio is a major hub in the US for human trafficking. Ohio is our neighbor state! 1000 Americans are forced into labor or the sex trade and "800 immigrants are sexually exploited and pushed into sweatshop-type jobs" just in Ohio! Check out what Doma is doing to protect these people.

baby arriving...

well...time for number two has arrived. we are scheduled for an induction tomorrow...

please be in prayer for aubrey and baby #2 as they go through the process of delivery.

Ring Stackers

I think one of the greatest toys for kids is this stack of colored rings made by Fisher-Price. (By the way the offical title is Rock-A-Stack.) We've all seen them...we've probably all played with them at one point.

I think the brilliance of this toy is that it has so much to teach. It teaches color, size differentials, order, stacking...etc. What's fascinating is that as Cadence has grown, she has enjoyed the toy in different ways. At first she loved taking the rings off and holding on to them. Then she let us put them on her amrs and legs (Grandma Fiegl's idea). She did figure out how to put them back on the post...but didn't know how to put them on in the right order until recently. And she will soon be able to learn the difference between the colors. But as she has discovered new things about this...you should see her face when she figures it out...sheer jubilation at the discovery.

The rings have always been the same, but Cadence has experienced them in different ways as she has matured.

I wonder if truth is similar to Rock-A-Stack toys. Truth remains constant, but as I grow and mature I experience it's complexity.

Love is similar too...the more I engage in my relationship with Aubrey, the more I find out the depths.

There is joy, simple and exuberant joy, as the facets of truth and love are discovered.