The Beauty of Jesus

Recently, Christy took her kids to the Art Museum to see the Rembrandt collection. That jogged a desire in my own heart to take in the exhibit, too. Several years ago, a friend and her husband had treated Andy and me to a trip to the Art Museum to see another exhibit (I think it was Monet). So I called her again to see if she wanted to go with us to see Rembrandt. She did and was available yesterday, our day off. So off we went.

It was a beautiful day with sunny, blue skies and fluffy white clouds. There was a stiff breeze but the air temperature was very comfortable – a perfect fall day.

We had a nice view of the city from the top of the Art Museum stairs.

Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures inside the art museum. It was a very interesting exhibit from the standpoint that Rembrandt was one of the first artists who portrayed Jesus as a more human, approachable person.

This was a break from nearly 15 centuries of artists painting Jesus as a distant godlike figure with a halo around his head. Rembrandt loved painting biblical stories and made several sketches of Jesus with Mary and Martha, Jesus with the 2 disciples he met on the road to Emmaus, Jesus healing and preaching and the Prodigal Son. I really like his portrayal of the Prodigal Son although we did not see that one displayed yesterday. The other one I really liked that was displayed was just a sketch of Jesus with Mary and Martha. It was interesting because Rembrandt captured what Jesus was trying to communicate by his interaction with the two women. Mary is depicted as sitting in the light and reading the Word, while Martha is portrayed as a dark blob. Her heart is dark because she is fretting and busy with worldly cares instead of delighting in Jesus’ presence.

Rembrandt has many sketches and paintings that he did of the face of Christ. He used a Jewish man as his model to bring a more realistic face to Jesus. I appreciate his effort to make Jesus more approachable and look more like a real person, rather than a high and distant diety. I have to confess, though, that in my own mind, I do not picture Jesus as looking like he portrayed him. We each have our own definition of beauty and what is good looking. Not that Jesus is necessarily handsome, but there is no doubt that we are drawn to him.

Beauty means different things to different people. I am always amused to hear new parents talk about how beautiful their baby is. Every parent thinks their baby is the prettiest baby there ever was. Those we love are beautiful to us. And that goes for the way we view our friends, as well as Jesus.

It's not necessarily his physical appearance that we are drawn to, but his character of love, kindness, gentleness, compassion, forgiveness and acceptance - what we know of him.

He is beautiful to me because I love him. In fact we sang a song to that effect on Sunday.

Beautiful One by Tim Hughes

Wonderful so wonderful is Your unfailing love
Your cross is spoken mercy over me
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart can fully know
How glorious, how beautiful You are

Chorus:
Beautiful one I love
Beautiful one I adore
Beautiful one my soul must sing

Powerful so powerful Your glory fills the skies
Your mighty works displayed for all to see
The beauty of Your majesty awakes my heart to sing
How marvelous, how wonderful You are

Chorus

You opened my eyes to Your wonders of anew
You captured my heart with this love
‘Cause nothing on earth is as beautiful as You Jesus
My soul, My soul must sing
Beautiful one

2 Corinthians 4:6: For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Beautiful Fall Days

After so many days of rain and dreariness, it was nice to finally see the sun (although it's gone again now). And what could be better than gardening on nice autumn days? So Dawn and I planned to use Andy's truck on Saturday to load up with bushes and perennials to do some planting. Dawn was making a new garden at the back of her house and I was just going along to add support, offer advice and suggestions and provide the truck. Well, I ended up buying some things, too. It's very hard to resist when you're at the nursery. It's like being in a candy store to a sugar-aholic. I guess that makes me a bush-aholic or a plant-aholic!

For a long time I've thought I would like some mountain laurel bushes in my gardens. They remind me of the mountains in Pa and I have happy memories of walking in those mountains with my Grandpa. And we also have mountain laurel right here in Mt. Laurel, so how appropriate that I have some of those pretty bushes in my own gardens. I bought 3 bushes and planted them in shade under a huge maple tree. Then I couldn't resist a winterberry bush I saw. I had seen some in a neighborhood park just a few days before. They were very attractive and eye-catching. So when I saw them at the nursery, I had to have one.

Here's my new garden (the white flowers in front of the mountain laurels are white phlox perennials):I've been keeping busy - not just with outdoor work. Last Tuesday, I washed all the windows in our house, inside and outside. Fortunately, we have double hung windows, so I don't have to go outside. But they are very difficult to work and I always need Andy to open them up for me. It doesn't take that long when there are 2 of us working together. I can't get over, though, how a little house like ours has so many windows! But they sure sparkle now - a job well done.

Some of my busyness comes from being with people, developing and maintaining relationships. All our church wives/women went out to eat on Monday evening. What a delightful evening spent with dear friends/co-workers. Most of our time at church is spent with other people, so to be able to have an evening together was a special treat.

On Thursday, I had a lunch appointment with a friend, then left work early to babysit Kira while Dawn had another doctor appointment. Kira was awake by the time I got there so we had a lot of time to play and be together.

Andy and I are facilitating an older singles group (singles in their 30's, 40's & 50s) from church. We meet every other Sunday evening at our house. This past Sunday was a game night. It was such a fun evening with lots of laughs and getting to know each other better. It was extra fun for me, because of 3 games I played, I won 2 of them! Someone brought a Wii game and we played the bowling game. We had played a couple of months ago and I did amazingly well considering that I really stink at real bowling. The funny thing was that Andy who is so good at real bowling, did not do well on the Wii version. Well, this time I outdid myself. I got a spare or strike in every frame of the game with a total score of 167! I can hardly believe it still. But you can imagine how that added to the fun of the evening for me to do so well and Andy to be shocked that I did that well, even beating him soundly! I have to admit it was very satisfying.

The other game we played was LRC using m&m's. I had never heard of that game, but it was a lot of fun. Everyone enjoyed the evening.

Yesterday was Katy's 1st birthday. Andy and I left work early and drove up to spend the afternoon with Amy and the kids. It was a very fun afternoon. Andy played in the sandbox with the kids.Katy opened her present and tried on her coat.We walked to the park and played till the mosquitos drove us back home.I had brought marinated salmon for the grill, potato casserole and pumpkin cupcakes for dinner. We thought we wouldn't see Ricky because he would be working late, but he surprised us by getting home while we were eating.

The Appeal of Children

Jesus loves the little children. I often think of that when I think of our grandchildren. I don't know that I thought about it as much when our own children were small. Maybe because we were too busy raising them, teaching them, correcting them, steering them in the right direction (in the moment). But now that the pressure's off, it's easier to see the delightfulness of children.

Andy and I were missing Christy and her family. Having spent 2 weeks together on vacation made it more poignant when we hadn't seen them for 4 weeks. So we took a trip on Tuesday to visit them. I marinated some chicken and put together a potato casserole and made a batch of pumpkin cream cheese muffins to take along. (Christy provided green beans from her garden to complete the meal.)

The kids were enthusiastic in their welcome when we arrived. I love it when they run to greet us. And weren't the children running to meet Jesus? No wonder he told his disciples to leave them alone, then took them up on his lap. I know that feeling! There's nothing like the hug of a child. You feel so loved and accepted. Children don't judge as adults do.

Kids are also spontaneous. It was almost dinner time and Grace and I were clearing the table (from earlier craft projects) and setting it for supper. All of a sudden the other kids arrived with a "ta-da" and all in costumes.

Asher the turtleAiden giving a bow

Naomi the princess

Kids are not afraid to ask questions. The dinner time conversation is quite entertaining and educational when shared with children, ages 3 - 10.

They're just cute. Asher asked me to get him a "dup." I knew he meant "cup" so I encouraged him: "Asher, say c-c-c-cup." He answered: "c-c-c-dup!"

And they love to be silly and have fun.Jesus tells us we need to be like little children to enter the kingdom of God. I don't think Andy will have any trouble with that one!

Time with Kira

I've seen a lot of Kira recently, which is a happy thing! On Saturday, Dawn & Tommy went to a wedding, so I had Kira here with me. She is such a fun little girl. She greets me very enthusiastically when she comes in the door, then heads right for the toys. She likes to dress up in the "pretty dress" and shoes, then sit down to read books. Thankfully, she does like to read because it doesn't require as much energy from her Grammy!She also likes to play outside.Andy and I are thinking of selling the trailer for our lawn mower because I think we've only used it once in all the years we've owned it. So Andy had it out to take pictures for posting and little Miss Kira thinks she can drive it!I have her again today because Dawn is having her surgery. I only worked 3 1/2 hours this morning then came home to take care of her. Right now she is taking her nap which is how I can be on the computer. She is quite a talker, repeating everything she hears, as well as coming up with her own stuff. Before nap, she told me she wanted to "watch George." That means she wants to watch Curious George on TV. Well, that's another fairly easy activity for Grammy to do with her.

Yesterday, Andy and 3 other guys rode their bikes to the shore. His mom and dad are staying in Ocean City for 3 weeks and for 4 years now, Andy has ridden his bike down while they are on vacation. It's a 72 mile ride. It wasn't a very nice day, overcast and gloomy, but at least it didn't rain while they were riding. I drove a church van down so they wouldn't have to ride their bikes back. We had a lunch of hoagies which they could all afford since they had burned around 4,000 calories.While eating on the deck of the shore house, this bird sat on a neighboring deck the whole time. No one knew what kind of bird it was. Do any of my bird loving relatives have any ideas?

Ministry Fair and Remembering 9/11

After a hectic week, Saturday was fairly restful and relaxing. I did a couple of loads of laundry but other than that, no work!

After dinner on Saturday, Andy and I both went over to church to set up tables and get the lobby ready for the Ministry Fair that was scheduled for Sunday morning. We (meaning Andy and Mark) put up the tables, then I put the tablecloths on. Andy helped me pin the banners onto the tables.It was a busy, exciting place on Sunday morning.
After church on Sunday, Andy and I went over to Laurel Acres Park where a 9/11 Memorial Service was scheduled. Several weeks ago, the township had called the church to ask one of our pastors to be involved in giving the invocation at the ceremony. So at staff meeting that week the pastors talked about it and decided Andy should be the one to do it. Since we were on vacation and absent from that meeting, we couldn't voice any objection! Actually, out of all the pastors, it made the most sense for Andy to be the one to do the honor. The other pastors had responsibilities that made it harder for them to get away from church.

The ceremony was at 1:00 pm. Andy and I were encouraged by the testimonies and stories of those who participated. There were the usual stories of the selfless heroics of the response teams, but almost all of them talked about how God ministered to them in that situation. They talked about their own growth and faith and hope. It was very heartening. We really don't live that far from New York, so our township was one of the first to respond in sending teams to New York. And we were given a big piece of steel from the World Trade Center as a memento. You can see it at the bottom of these two pictures.
The Mount Laurel mayor and Andy praying.The end of the ceremony: bagpipes playing Amazing Grace.
Psalm 42:3-5
My tears have been my food day and night,
while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
These things I remember as I pour out my soul;
how I used to go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of God
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive throng.
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

Where is God when tragedy strikes? He is there: in outer space, in the deepest pit, giving comfort, glimmers of hope and glimpses of Himself. There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.

It's a good thing to remember. Great is His faithfulness.

Labor Day and Books I've Read

Vacation seems like a distant memory this week. It was a short work week because of the holiday, but the days I did work were very busy. I had to fit into 3 days what normally takes 4. On top of that, a 4 hour staff meeting was scheduled for yesterday, my first day in the office this week. Yikes! Fortunately, I have good help. Although I worked extra hours yesterday, today went better and the work got done.

Andy and I labored on Labor Day. After visiting Amy, Ricky and kids on Sunday (see Amy's blog), Monday and Tuesday we worked on a long list of jobs to be done around the house. None of them were too exciting. For instance, Andy worked on installing a battery back up for our sump pump. He also worked on correcting some electrical issues. Our kitchen light is on a 3-way switch and for some reason, the one switch wasn't working. He had worked on trying to fix that a number of times, but wasn't getting it. He finally called an electrician friend to help and now it works! These may seem like trivial and insignificant items on the to-do list, but it's a good feeling when they can be crossed off.

I puttered around in the kitchen and did errands and cleaned house and generally got caught up from being away. On Tuesday, I watched Kira while Andy and Dawn went biking. They did a 44 mile ride, preparing for the trip to the shore on Sept. 20. They seem to really enjoy their biking, but I think I had the better experience. Kira and I read books, played on the swing set, threw sticker balls in the pond, visited the neighbor's sheep and goats and another neighbor's chickens. (I do not have any pictures because I forgot all about recording those precious moments for posterity.)

I've been reading some good books lately. I gained some insight into myself from People of the Lie by M.Scott Peck.The whole book was insightful but I especially was struck in his explanation of group dynamics. He said "most people would rather be followers. More than anything else, it is probably a matter of laziness. It is simply easy to follow, and much easier to be a follower than a leader. There is no need to agonize over complex decisions, plan ahead, exercise initiative, risk unpopularity, or exert much courage."

It struck a chord with me because I am often in a leadership role, but have to confess that I would rather follow. I had never thought of it in terms of my laziness, but I have to agree that it is easier to follow than lead. There is risk in leading.

The author continues: "The problem is that the role of follower is the role of child. The individual adult as individual is master of his own ship, director of his destiny. But when he assumes the role of follower he hands over to the leader his power: his authority over himself and his maturity as decision-maker. He becomes psychologically dependent on the leader as a child is dependent on its parents."

Another book that challenged my thinking was In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson.The subtitle is: How to Survive and Thrive when Opportunity Roars. It was recommended to me by a friend whose husband passed away in October. Here are some quotes from the beginning of several chapters to whet your appetite:

chapter 1 - "You are responsible forever for what you have tamed." Antoine de Saint-Exupery
chapter 2 - "How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos." G.K. Chesterton
chapter 5 - "To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation." Oswald Chambers
chapter 6 - "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

A couple of things I underlined:
"Don't let what's wrong with you keep you from worshiping what's right with God."
He talked about that there are "basically two kinds of people in the world: complainers and worshipers...Complainers will always find something to complain about. Worshipers will always find something to praise God about. They simply have different default settings."

"Here's what I've learned from personal experience. Sickness helps us appreciate health. Failure helps us appreciate success. Debt helps us appreciate wealth. And the tough times help us appreciate the good times. That's just the way life is. I've also learned that our worst days can become our best days."

The author stated that we can turn our adversity into a ministry. If we don't do so, our pain remains our pain. But if we allow God to translate our adversity into a ministry, then our pain becomes someone else's gain. He said he had a theory that "the more problems you have, the more potential you have to help people."

Very thought provoking.

And then I read another book just for fun: The Three Musketeers.This story was written by Alexandre Dumas who was a prolific writer in the 1800's. Another of his novels, Count of Monte Cristo, is also a classic. This is a story set in France where there is intrigue in the court of King Louis XIII. It gets pretty exciting in spots, but our hero manages to foil all attempts to do away with him and in the end, justice and right prevail. I love good endings.