Trying to Communicate

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Margaret

As two-year-old Emerald learns to talk, she often struggles to make us understand. The other day she said, “Ah-bye-ya? Ah-bye-ya?” Three of us stood in front of her making guesses as if we were a panel playing a word game and she was trying to stump us.

“I by you? Go bye-bye? Oh baby?”

On and on we guessed without getting it right as Emerald repeated her question again and again. Finally frustration got the best of her, and she left the room with a knitted brow. It’s tough not to be understood when you know exactly what you’re trying to say. The gap in communication between us must have been much like what happened at the biblical Tower of Babel.

Although the building project had begun with everyone speaking the same language, before it finished workers couldn’t understand or be understood. Because the language barrier happened abruptly, intense frustration must have been the order of that day, too.

Ever since then, citizens of the world have had trouble understanding each other. Existing languages number about 6500, and most of us know only one of them. I often think of Adam and Eve and their family. What language did they speak? Surely it wasn’t English.

I also wonder about the language of heaven, which I’m hoping will be plopped into all our brains in one instant: grammar, usage, vocabulary and all. (If I have to attend language school once I get there, it’ll be a huge disappointment.)

Words are a most valuable possession, particularly those of the Bible. And since God assures us his Word-of-words is eternal, we’ll probably be reading/hearing it in a brand new language.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the Lord decided not only to put a new language inside our brains but to deposit all of Scripture in there at the same time? No more struggling to memorize, or reviewing to keep it fresh, or looking up references. We would know it, understand it, and have it handy for immediate use. I can’t imagine such a gift!

As for Emerald and her frustration over our not grasping the meaning of “ah-bye-ya?”, a few minutes later she reappeared in front of us with…. her little pink umbrella. “Ah-bye-ya!” she announced in triumph, holding it up for all to see.

Thrilled to connect with her at last, we applauded and said, “Umbrella! Umbrella!” Her broad grin was testimony to the joy of being fully understood. If heaven’s language will make us feel like that, then communicating is going to be great fun indeed!

“You are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

Traveling Light…. and Light-hearted

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Margaret

Today I dropped Nelson off at a train with a snow-packed underside and steps so ice-encrusted the conductor had to chip and shovel before letting anyone off or on.

A train trip to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport is the first leg of Nelson’s convoluted 3 day journey that will land him in north India. As he walked toward the platform, I said, “You look like a seasoned traveler.” In his cap and carefully-chosen, layered clothes, his expert planning would efficiently make the transition from Michigan’s single-digit cold to India’s warmth. His only luggage for many months was a backpack.

With a double blast from the diesel engine, he was gone.

Though I stood by my car waving till he was out of sight, once behind the wheel again, I burst into tears. My heart is genuinely joyful for Nelson’s departure for one reason: his steps have been specifically directed by God. But my emotions were objecting.

Leaning toward the facts, I reminded myself that the Lord has carefully led Nelson to this day. Here are just two of the many ways we knew that:

1. After having applied for a visa to India and wondering whether or not it would come through, Nelson was cleaning out some old files and came across a folder of foreign paper money. And though he has traveled extensively in more than a dozen countries, the only money in the file was rupees from India.

2. He applied for a 10 year, multiple-entry visa but was mentally prepared for something much less, maybe a 90 day visa with limited entry. Or even a 30 day with one entry. But the 10 year visa came through on exactly the day he’d expected it.

There were other indications this was God’s plan for Nelson, too, so as my tears trickled, I reminded myself of the privilege of releasing this son to do the work he’s been called to do. And I pictured my Aunt Joyce sitting next to me in the car telling me to stop crying and thank God for all the blessings of being Nelson’s mother.

His instruction is to give thanks no matter what’s going on around us, plus or minus. A heart of gratitude is to be grounded in the Lord, not in how we feel at any given moment. And his blessing covers everything from eternal salvation to a pair of warm gloves. Not even the saddest circumstances are devoid of something for which to be thankful.

As for counting the blessings of being Nelson’s mother, at the top of my list was having a son whose highest priority is to follow God’s will for his life. That led me to be thankful he boarded the train. Had Nelson seen my tears and then cancelled his trip, I would have been disappointed…. and so would God.

Besides, by the time I got home from the station, my blessing-list was long, and my tears were long-gone.

“A wide door for effective work has opened to me.” (1 Corinthians 16:9)

Releasing or Resisting?

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Margaret

Those of us who love being parents often have trouble letting go of our children when the time comes. Whether that’s sending them off to kindergarten, college, or marriage, the goodbyes always include a twinge of sadness (and sometimes a deluge of tears). As we practice at parting ways, though, we get better at it. Goodbyes may never be completely painless, but they can become less difficult.

Where we run into trouble is when we cling too tightly. As James Dobson often said, a parent’s most important task is to work themselves out of a job. Though we’ll always be the mom or dad, active parenting ought always to be on the decrease. If we refuse to release them, everything goes haywire.

I well remember my mentor, Aunt Joyce, going through this process when her daughter and son-in-law, along with two of her grandchildren, left for a distant mission field. My aunt told me how she wrestled with the Lord over his plan to “take them away” like that. Though she had released her daughter at the appropriate times along the way, this additional letting go seemed too much.

She described how the Lord worked with her to give her a new perspective. And when she came out the other side, she understood that letting go of her daughter and family meant she was participating in the Great Commission. By releasing rather than resisting, she was indirectly helping to spread the Gospel to the nations.

After that, though the goodbyes continued to be emotional, her changed perspective helped her. Lovingly letting go was the work God gave her to do, and by accepting the assignment, she got to participate in missions, too.

As I was raising 7 children, I never dreamed how many goodbyes there would be. The most difficult ones have been those involving thousands of miles and months of time. But in almost every case, those have been in the realm of missions, and remembering my mentor’s words has strengthened me to the task.

Tomorrow I’ll say goodbye to my firstborn once again as he heads for his next assignment with Youth with a Mission. This time his destination is 7342 miles from home, literally on the other side of the globe. When it’s noon for me, it will be midnight for him.

Though I won’t see him for several months, my job as his mother is the same as my aunt’s was: to release him with my enthusiastic blessing. God has one purpose in it for him and a different one for me. And both of us want to take advantage of what those are.