together

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good enough?

Our most recent article (click on the page and it should enlarge for readability):

good enough,

our gift of heart

the wonder and beauty of God's unique design in us is amazing, each crafted to make complete what's incomplete. if only we could have it all - but..., we do, in the other. families make this evident - what's lacking in one is exemplified in another. and sometimes there's one that has something uniquely special, uniquely attractive, something all of us wish we possessed.

by contrast, the pull to satisfy ourselves is as old as Cain and Able. you would think by now we might have figured a work around to that. some seem more resilient than others, but all wrestle. and when the resilient ones shine, we gravitate to them, to that. to see someone in their natural course of everyday life with a need, and to pinpoint that need, and then to address that need is a gift - it's an attractive gift.

lately, we've particularly noticed that Willow sees outside herself - she has a gift. Victoria's back-pain assuaged with an unexpected cold pack from the freezer, delivered by Willow from heart; or a simple note with kindergarten-style stick figures to boost the spirits of a not-feeling-so-good Grandpa, created by Willow from heart; or a reminder at prayer-time to ask God to "help for..." those in need, elevated by Willow from heart; or... the list (you know then end of this sentence)...

why God has given us so many gifts, in the other and in our family, we do not know. but we do know that without them we're incomplete. and so today we thank God that our incompleteness is partially made complete with Willow (and with Poppy, and with Piper, and with Barret, and with Annie, and with Brian, and with Austin, and with Meagan, and with Victoria, and with Tom). and what's lacking in them is fully satisfied in Jesus.

The Hole In Our Whole

Families were simply designed to be together. In spite of all the familiarity that is known to breed contempt, there's something comforting about all that stuff just because you're in. We've known it, we've tasted it, we've felt it in our family, and there's no greater moment of such but at the Holiday Season. For us, for me, it's rarely recognized while in the midst of it, but almost always elevated when broken apart. When the whole is no longer whole, all of the sudden you realize there's a hole. Then you have to relearn how to be a family without being complete as a family. And no matter how hard you try, nothing seems to fill the void until you're all together again. Then, once you are, the stuff of families gets elevated again, and you wonder whether the whole really is whole... but it is, and that's the way it is.

Like most families right about now, we're breaking apart. The presents unwrapped, the trimmings dry, the lights dimmed are signals of something to come - the end. The end of togetherness as we treasure it most, the end of just being as we rest in it most. Barret traversing back to collegiate studies in another land was the blinding signal of just that. His heart sinking at the thought of the impending "good-byes" and our hearts breaking at the thought of the impending distance reminds us that community was perfectly designed to fulfill the longing of forever togetherness. No matter how magical isolation, quiet and "freedom" may sound, the beauty of connectedness is always far superior.

With gentle kisses on the cheeks of sleeping sisters and mother, Barret whispered his "good-byes" in the darkness of the morning hours and is now in flight back to his college campus. The home's a little quieter now, a little more empty, a little sad - all reminders that families were simply designed to be together. And while we'll never really all be together again under one roof and under every season, we long for the soon-to-be shorter ones that will inevitably be separated by the longer ones - at least until the final, the ultimate forever-one.

To quote Willow this morning, "Barret's going to be gone for a long time... that's just the way it is."