Category Archives: Thankfulness

Thank you, Drew.

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Today when Drew came over, it was to finish the last couple of things on my home improvement list. I’ve loved his daily cheerful arrival and have enjoyed listening to him sing along with the country music he loves. (To Drew’s credit, he’s learned to appreciate Michael Buble’, too.) I’ll miss him!

One of his last endeavors was to finish a bit of stone artwork the two of us came up with together. It’s a door mat made of beach stones set in front of our “door to nowhere” (which will one day lead to an outdoor deck). Drew filled the mat space with mortar, and I filled it with my favorite stones. After the mortar dried he sealed it, and we’ll all be stepping on it for years to come.

The mat has a special feature, a larger rock set amongst the smaller ones with my favorite “footsteps” Scripture on it. Drew’s cousin offered to try his laser etching machine on carving the verse directly into a rock, which turned out to be a tricky task, but it turned out great.

Some people think I have rocks in my head for all the beach stones at my house. They’re glued around picture and mirror frames, candles and clocks. My sister’s Scripture rocks are on my desk, and I have multi-colored rocks in a decorative bowl. That doesn’t count the 4 long shelves of rocks stored in my basement.

And God made them all. Since he frequently refers to himself as The Rock, I figure it’s ok.

Rocks factor into quite a few Bible stories, too. The patriarchs often stacked stones to make an altar upon which to make a sacrifice to God after something spectacular had happened. Later God instructed Joshua to stack 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan River as tens of thousands of people passed through it on dry land (much like the Red Sea). God says those 12 stones are still there today. (Joshua 4:9)

He also told them to stack 12 stones at their very first campsite in the Promised Land, telling the people that when their children asked about their significance, they were to tell the story of God drying up the Jordan for them to cross over, a picture of his power.

Even the priests put something called “stones of remembrance” on the shoulder straps of their apron-like ephods. Then as they entered the temple to seek forgiveness of sins, the 12 tribes were represented, their names engraved on the stones.

David appreciated rocks, too, killing a giant with one carefully selected smooth stone. And Jacob had his head on a rock-pillow the night he dreamed of the ladder to heaven.

My humble door mat won’t have as grand a use as any of these biblical examples, but everyone who walks on it will be reminded that God can keep us from anything that threatens to ruin us, if we’ll just trust our footsteps to him. (Psalm 119:133)

Thank you, Drew.

There is “a time to gather stones together.” (Ecclesiastes 3:5)

Blessed to be Included

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This family photo (taken at my niece Julia’s wedding) was the last one of our “Nyman 9.” Shortly after that our children began marrying, and before we knew it, grandchildren were making their debuts. Today we are 15 and counting, but isn’t that the way families grow?

Often I think of God as my heavenly Father. According to Scripture, Israel was his bride, and his Son Jesus opens the way for the rest of us to gain sibling status when we believe he is who he says he is. That makes God the Father of millions, if not billions of children, and his family continues to grow.

Bill Gaither wrote a song about the delight of being included in God’s growing crowd of relatives. One of the verses goes like this:

From the door of an orphanage to the house of the King,
No longer an outcast, a new song I sing;
From rags unto riches, from the weak to the strong,
I’m not worthy to be here, but praise God I belong!

The wonder of those words is that God gives us a way to belong. He certainly never had a need for us, and our thanks for being given life was to cause him unbounded trouble, disappointing him repeatedly through thousands of years that include even today. Yet the limitless love he has for us, a complete mystery, motivated him to go all out. The only born-one to God, Jesus Christ, surrendered his life, and God the Father agreed to this mind-boggling idea.

The Message puts it beautifully in Ephesians 1:2-4:

“How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.”

I couldn’t have said it any better. And I can’t wait to be in the family photograph.

I made it myself!

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Every parent has witnessed a child’s twinkling eyes as their 5 year-old approaches with her hands behind her back. “I have a surprise for you!” she says through a wide grin. “I made it myself!”

Focusing with laser intensity on her parents’ eyes with the hope of holding their gaze she says, “Are you ready?”

And out from hiding comes a painted plaster bird or a tin-foil ornament. Her parents oooh and aaah over the wonder of this creation, and the child smiles with a sense of ownership and pride. The fact that she is willing to give it away is true love indeed.

I wonder if God feels that way about all he’s made, from invisible atoms to immense stars. Master Creator that he is, he’s probably deeply attached to every piece of the universe as its Designer. He owns it all. And yet he’s given all of its parts to us in an expression of true love.

Last week I found myself walking through the glass-walled rooms of the Frederik Meijer Botanical Gardens, a wonderland of all things green and growing. Browsing through a maze of greenhouses, I felt like a child on a treasure hunt, searching for each wonder pictured in my brochure. Even the children’s garden dusted off the hidden kid in me.

Also fascinating was the people-parade, each person charmed by endless botanical wonders. The plants and flowers were a fascination to everyone from youngsters in strollers to oldsters in wheelchairs, who all chose this as their go-to place on a cool, overcast day.

I’d like to think they were there because God’s work is too spectacular to resist. Although Frederik Meijer was the benefactor of the greenhouses and acreage, God provided the filler. Without his broad array of happy plants, the whole venture would be lifeless.

Some Scriptures tell us God created with words alone, but I like to imagine him more involved, ingeniously designing everything from Azaleas to Zinnias. Might he have envisioned a bird not yet created while fashioning the Bird of Paradise? Or thought of Bethlehem as he shaped the first Star Fruit? Or pondered the food chain when putting together the Venus Fly Trap? Or sighed as he crafted the Bleeding Heart?

Surely he’s pleased as he watches people of all ages roam a garden bursting with his creativity, appreciating it as a living art gallery. But none of us need to buy entrance into a botanical garden to value what God has made. His artwork surrounds us, and there’s no better time than spring to express gratitude.

Thinking back to creation immediately after he’d made the world, God didn’t hide it behind his back but eagerly gave it away as soon as he’d made the first human being.  Might he have delivered it with a twinkle in his eye?

I’m sure of it.

God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours…” God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. (Genesis 1:29, 31)