Friendship

Friendship is rare on earth. It means identity in thought and heart and spirit. ~Oswald Chambers

My friend left today. Moving to a beautiful country, on a grand adventure. I'm happy and excited for her. And I'm sad. I'm missing her. Things will be different. We'll communicate differently. What will it be like?

Is this some of what the disciples felt? Jesus said, "I have called you friends." Then He said, "It is expedient for you that I go away." Happy and sad. Missing Him. Things would be different. How would they communicate? What would it be like?

I believe what C. S. Lewis wrote in The Four Loves, "for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” . . . At this feast it is He who has spread the board and it is He who has chosen the guests.

Friendship which can end was never true friendship.* Our Friendship is a true friendship. It has been tested by fire and our hearts are melted together. I don't know the way things are going to work out, but I know that they will and that "it will be fine."

*St. Jerome

“. . . the true driving force in authentic Christian living is, and ever must be . . . the heart of gratitude.” Simply, we were made to give thanks and glorify Him.
~J.I. Packer

Serendipity

Thanks to Elizabeth our “tapestry” of life is full of many new beautiful threads. We started traveling down the serendipitous path of delightful and directed learning a couple of weeks ago and it has been delightful. We look forward to each days adventures, amazed at the way everything that we’re doing is weaving together seamlessly.

As we started down the alphabet path, we began listening to The Secret Garden on Librivox. While listening, Peter draws and paints and models with beeswax. We’ve added in two Thornton W. Burgess books, The Burgess Bird Book for Children and The Burgess Animal Book for Children. Additionally, we read from James Herriot’s Treasury for Children.

Each day we study a new flower providing another opportunity for artful expression. We have had so many serendipitous moments and are making so many “connections.” While listening to The Secret Garden, our weather and several birds and critters have cooperated wonderfully by providing living examples of various passages from the text. Its been such fun to watch Peter as he realizes that a flower we’ve just studied is being discussed between Dicken and Mary.

We’ve been baking, reading wonderful picture books, looking at beautiful art, and learning about the lives of people who love God. We love it!

I have modified math a bit. Rather than Gnomes and Gnumbers, we are using Knights and Knumbers. Serendipitously, we already had knights with mathematical symbols on them and gems from a previous math venture.

Free your minds, then, of encumbrances; control them, and put your trust in nothing but the grace that will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:13

Roots

A blessing on the man who puts his trust in the Lord, with the Lord for his hope. He is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it feels no alarm, its foliage stays green; it has no worries in a year of drought, and never ceases to bear fruit. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your life be built on him. As you trust in him, Christ will make his home in your heart. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.

~Jeremiah 17:7 ~Colossians 2:7 ~Ephesians 3:1