Consider the Lilies

I love this song.

Last year sometime I pitched the idea of self-publishing a book of writings of my Great Grandmother’s, my Grandmother’s, my Mother’s, my sister’s and mine to my Mom and sister. We all wanted to do it but life got in the way and we didn’t think about it again until my sister called me several weeks ago and suggested that we go ahead and get it going since my Mom’s very important (numerically speaking) birthday was coming up. She lit the fire under me and when there is a fire lit under me I really get bubbling. So I worked day in and day out on the project for the past several weeks, sometimes hours at a time and I finished the project earlier this week.

I decided to use Blurb to self-publish this volume as I have used Blurb in the past and was quite satisfied. My sister just presented my Mom with the book tonight and happily my Mom loves it. It turned out beautifully. The book is really a tribute to God’s covenental faithfulness throughout the generations. And it is about living on Christ in all stations of life. Here is the poem I wrote for the introduction…

Our Written Ovation

From every language and translation
The Lord creates one holy nation
Working in them His Salvation.
He the rock, the sure foundation
invites us into celebration.
Lord, make alter building our vocation!
We the Choir and Congregation
Lift Him high in adoration.
Here we set our contemplation
of His faithful allocation
and his blessed cultivation
through each passing generation.
Lord, make alter building our Vocation!
Here we set a demonstration
of His faithful confirmation
through the covenant relation.
Join we now the conversation
from whisperings and meditation
to shouts of praise and invocation,
Lord, make alter building our vocation!
Here we see the transformation,
wrought through time and through life station,
from fear and pain to liberation
by His own son’s compensation.
May our words and presentation,
be a written standing ovation
of Christ’s cherished incarnation.
Lord, make alter building our vocation!

And here is what I wrote for one of the inside flaps of the dust jacket…

Whether it’s in the joy of becoming a mother, the palpable grief of losing a child, whether it’s the amazing feelings that accompany newfound love, the questions that surround times of insecurity and indecision, whether it’s in the daily grind of living life or the highs and lows on either end, whether it’s growing a victory garden during wartime or playing in the backyard fort in peaceful times, whether it’s in the hilarity of a moment with a child or the moments of stress and strain, women share bonds even across the generations. The women in this volume share more than similar experiences though, they share a family history that is marked by the loving and sovereign hand of the All Seeing God.

If you’d like to see what it looks like you can let me know in the comments and I’ll send you a link.

Perhaps it’s the frigid temperatures (16°F right now) or something else.  I don’t know.  Perhaps it’s that I was randomly looking through pictures and was reminded of how I was going to post so many pictures after our trip last Summer but then never got to do very many of them because of getting so sick.  Happily I am almost entirely recovered from all of that with just a few little annoying symptoms hanging on.  And they are really little more than an annoyance so I really feel that I am completely recovered by God’s amazing grace and healing.  Thanks for your prayers and support through that storm!

Anyway, I just feel like posting a whole bunch of pictures from our trip with no commentary.  So that’s what I’m going to try to do.

This was a lucky day as we were just on the ferry on the way back over to the mainland.  We weren’t on a whale-watching tour but we got to enjoy a pod of Killer Whales going by.  I was pretty jealous of the fishermen and whale watchers who had a front row seat though.  The whales were going right underneath their boats.

Earth and Man
By Nancy Doud

From the towering trees to the tiniest seeds
Your voice commanded the most glorious deeds.
Oceans are rolling and roiling and boiling,
The earth and its creatures are ceaselessly toiling.

But man brought a curse to each square inch of earth
in deciding the fruit was of more infinite worth.
And every day since the earth lets out its groans
crying out to its God in earth shattering moans.

And yet for the curse that has brought about weeds
the earth still obeys the fulfiller of needs.
The trees of the fields, their hands they will clap,
The rocks will cry out where man’s voice leaves a gap.

Earth knew its master when His feet touched the ground
It recognized Him when His voice made a sound.
Seas became still when He told them to hush.
When He spoke even fish, to the nets, made a rush.

At the sound of His voice the earth opened up wide
And then closed up again when its meal was inside.
Heaven rained fury when God wished it so
And rainbows appeared, His compassion to show.

Though the earth is not silent and teaches man how
to fall down at His feet and worship Him now,
to cry out and to lift holy hands up in prayer,
Man shuts his ears with a curse and his fist in the air.

Yet even for these the earth brightly diffuses
His splendor and wonder so there are no excuses.
The heavens are shouting the glories abroad
of The One who turns fist shakers into children of God!

From the tiniest babe who has yet to take breath,
to the oldest of cynics on the brink of his death,
all earth, seas and heaven exist to display
The one who puts hearts into vessels of clay.

If you are like me you deal with worry now and then.  Lately I have had a lot of stuff on my plate.  There’s the every day stuff and then there’s all the internal stuff.  And the internal stuff is what has my mind racing and wondering and worrying.

As I’ve been busily mulling things over in my mind I’ve been simultaneously working on a neat project that I conjured up last Summer.  It’s a project that involves a lot of poetry.  I will eventually be able to share this project with you but it’s still in process and I am not saying anything more.  So I’ve been treating my worry with three things recently; scripture, prayer and poetry.  I’m praying a lot.  And reading scripture more.  And then internalizing what I’m learning by writing a poem of some sort.  I’m pretty sure this is a genetic trait.  More on that later.

Here is the last poem I wrote, inspired by Psalm 139.

Nothing is hidden from you,
maker of all that I see.
You do what pleases you
and what is best for me.

You’ve searched within me
and you know each thought
Your hand is upon me
in you I’m happily caught.

Flying to the heights
I remain in your care
sinking to the depths
I am safe from the snare.

In the darkest of night
By you I’ll be found
Very light of very light
by darkness unbound.

As I was created
your hand worked its arts,
your spirit pervaded
my innermost parts.

Lord, you have numbered
each one of my days
Your eyes never slumbered
You’re worthy of praise.

Lord, your thoughts are beyond me–
our ways highly contrasting.
Take all my anxiety
Lead in your way everlasting.

Do you ever write poetry?

Winter weather can really grate on a person after a while.  You just want to go somewhere and see color.  You get tired of going back and forth between slushy parking lots and icy parking lots.  You kinda just want to be warm again.  However, winter weather has its advantages too.  Hoary frost is an example of this.  (Hoary - 1. gray or white as with age)  For those of you unfamiliar with snow and the many types of snow hoary frost is what happens when you mix fog and below freezing temperatures.  (Well, there a few different types of hoary frost so there are a few different ways for it to happen; ice, snow, fog, etc.)  But we had a dense fog and a cold front roll in just the other night and we woke up to a lovely morning of hoary frost.  ANYWAY, it’s beautiful for pictures and I just so happened to get to take a friend’s picture today so we had to get some pictures with the hoary frost.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the gift of faith that God grants to us.  I’ve been thinking specifically of how we long to see our children trust in Christ.  Many of us have been brought up to believe that our children need a mature understanding of Christ to be able to be called a Christian or more specifically to be allowed to take communion.  I’ve been growing in my understanding in this area a lot lately.

Some of the scriptures that have really been teaching me are these…

Psalm 131

A song of ascents. Of David.

¹ My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.

² But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

³ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

Trusting in the Lord is not about concerning yourself with great matters and high arguments.  It’s as simple as a weaned child with its mother… content just to lie in her arms and be loved.

Acts 2:38-39

³⁸Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

The promises of God are not just ours but they are our children’s to take hold of even as rudely and immaturely as an infant innately grabs hold of its mothers finger and holds its fist tight shut.  Children born to believers are taught from day one to take hold of Jesus and trust in God.  How immaturely they do this is not a sign of a lack of faith, but merely a lack of maturity in their faith.  That faith though is as real as the faith of someone who is growing up in their faith and has begun to eat spiritual meat!

Mark 10:13-16

¹³People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

Do not hinder them!  The gift of faith can be granted to little ones!  Some churches believe in an arbitrary age of accountability based on scientific data of cognitive function but people with low IQs and those who are severely developmentally and physically delayed can have saving faith without such cognitive function.  Some churches don’t believe a child’s faith is legitimate unless they can write an essay or memorize the answers to several complex spiritual questions.  But what is required of us?  Become like a little child!  Trust implicitly in Christ, like a child does.  They don’t know all of the theological language.  They can’t explain the Trinity to you.  They can’t express intellectually the substitutionary atonement of Jesus on behalf of His people.  But they love Him.  And they know they belong to Him because we have told them so from before they could speak and it’s only natural for them to take hold of Him like a baby takes hold of its mother’s finger.  Simple faith.  Faith like a mustard seed.

Matthew 17:20

…I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.

A child’s faith need not be big.  They need not have all the answers.  Their faith may be small, as small as the tiniest seed which we as parents are called to water through raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  Then they will grow in wisdom and stature before the Lord, even as our older brother Jesus did, like a plant that will grow into maturity and bear much fruit for those about them to be nourished by also.

I Corinthians 1

¹⁹For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”^{[c] 20}Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe….²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹so that no one may boast before him.

What could be more foolish and weak than a child?  And yet He has said that His Kingdom belongs to such as these!

The Passover meal was to be eaten by the whole family of God.  All those who were in the household of faith. The promises were for them and for their children.  God took them out of Egypt and they fed their children the passover meal and carried them out of Egypt to safety.  The children were passengers but they rode on their parents’ backs and in their carts trusting in their parents’ love for them, knowing that their parents wouldn’t take them somewhere where they would be destroyed but where they would be free.  The parents trusted God and taught their children to.  So Passover was not just a meal for the mature and strong but for the weak as well.

Jesus gave the cup of the new covenant in the context of the Passover.  He was not instituting a new covenant from which the children of believers must now be excluded, unlike the old covenant where the signs of God’s faithfulness were applied to all within the household of faith, where children were shown in edible form how God had set them free.  The new covenant most emphatically still belonged to the children of believers but the gates had been thrown even wider that those who were not part of Israel in relation to Abraham could be called sons of God by faith and that the promises were for them and their children also!

We have such a gracious God and I am so thankful that my children, though young in their faith, trust Jesus.  Will they stumble?  Will they fall along the way?  Yes, they likely will just like the rest of us, even those who don’t come to faith until they are adults.  But if faith is a road on which we walk as the Israelites walked out of Egypt, we are to carry our children until they themselves are able to walk.  We are to help them up when they fall.  We are to continually point them to Christ who is the Way to freedom.  And we are never to hinder them from eating the meal of faith even when that faith is small, immature and faltering.  Like the freedom food of the Passover, it is their edible lesson in learning to take Jesus by faith at every turn.

I have written a hymn that encompasses some of what God has been teaching me in this respect.  It can be sung to the tune of Children of the Heav’nly Father.  However it is more in the thematic vein of Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us as that song has, along with the scriptures above, been inspiring to me lately too as I’ve thought on this subject.  We easily sing, “Early let us seek Thy favor, early let us do Thy will; Blessèd Lord and only Savior, with Thy love our bosoms fill.” But then we often go to question the seedling faith of children because they are so immature!  He is our shepherd.  He feeds us and He has a special place in His heart for our Children.

Isaiah 40:11

¹¹ He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.

If we believe He does all that and doesn’t also feed our young in their faith, we are far less gracious than He who ordains praise out of the mouths of babes!

Here is my song.

Take and Eat, All of You
By Nancy Doud

For to you and your descendants
comes a gift, the best of presents;
the gift of faith to those He chooses
set apart for holy uses.

Though we wonder at His choices
we shall raise our hearts and voices
For His goodness shineth ever
And His purpose lasts forever.

Old and young He calls and treasures
Them He fills with boundless measures;
of His grace and of His favor
calls He them to ever savor.

Taste and see, that He is so good
blesses you with miracle food
“Come”, He says and take in union
of this meal of sweet communion.

Have you faith in Christ the savior?
Is that gift a taste you savor?
Take and eat and in it relish
by it, your faith, He’ll embellish.

All it takes is one small faith seed;
just a glimpse to see of your need.
No great language He requires
Tender hearts are His desires.

Child small or elder prudent
of our Brother you’re a student
Need we all His calm assuring
Room we all have for maturing.

Jesus said do not them hinder,
children small and weak and tender.
Let your faith be like a child’s
and you’ll never be reviled.

As you take this bread and this wine
It’s your savior on which you dine.
Covenantal sons and daughters
with this meal your faith He waters.

From the mouths of babes come praises
young and old, their heads He raises
Lifts them up from lowly places
Gifts them all with all His graces.

Some subjects are just too easy.  You walk away from the photoshoot and you wonder if there was a bad picture in the bunch (even though you know there always is, you have a feeling the only real trouble will be picking just one picture).  This little girl is the daughter of one of my friends.  She is auditioning for commercial acting work and needed a headshot done so we got together this morning and as they say, “got ‘er done”.  She is obviously very easy to photograph!

I wrote this poem this afternoon using (almost exclusively) hymn titles and lyrics.

All Praises Sing
By Nancy Doud

And can It Be,  Amazing Grace that does Abide With Me?
Arise, my soul Arise! Awake My Soul and see!
Be Still My Soul for Beams of Heaven Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand,
How Brightly Shines the Morning Star, amidst the Angel Band!

All That I Am, Approach My Soul the Mercy Seat indeed,
For All the Saints Alas and Did My precious Savior Bleed!

Not What My Hands Have Done, no Nothing In My Hands I Bring,
Oh for Nothing But the Blood of Jesus A Thousand Tongues to Sing!

O Lord, Our Lord in All the Earth I Sing the Mighty Power,
Come Thou Fount and Give Reviving, I Need Thee Every Hour!

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go, Out of the Deep I Call,
I Love Thee Lord Jesus, My Lord, My God, My All!
Under the Shelter of Your Wings I know All Must Be Well,
Hear Our Prayer, Hear Our Cry! Heal Us Emmanuel!

Come Ye Sinners, Come Ye Weary, Come Christians Join to Sing
Beneath the Cross of Jesus, the Everlasting King!
Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder of My Maker and My King!

We Worship Thee, Almighty Lord, Thou Whose Almighty Word,
The Church’s One Foundation is,
My Lord, My Life, My Way, My End.
For Lo He Comes, Our Gracious Savior,
Jesus, The Sinner’s Friend!

Other poems I’ve written over the past few years:

All Things New

Legos

On Earth

My friend over at Willow & Paisley needed a new picture of herself for a crafting magazine featuring some of her amazing work (please check out her blog… she is insanely talented!)  So she e-mailed me this last week and asked if I could take a couple of head shots of her.  I was more than happy to say yes!

Thanks for letting me practice on you, you beautiful person you!