My in-laws visited this weekend. They initially suggested last weekend, to celebrate Mark’s birthday, but this weekend worked out better. They brought me a lobelia (small! blue! flowers!) and some dark chocolate — very nice, thank you! And all we’d done was send grandma cards with Amy’s coloring in them.
Amy thoroughly enjoyed seeing her grandparents again, and they returned the sentiment.
Oh — and did we get a lot done in the yard! It’s the wrong time and all, but we pruned the fruit trees, and planted tomatoes and peppers that my father-in-law brought. He and Mark even cut up all the branches for a nice neat pile behind the shed. Thanks!
Happy Mother’s Day to those who partake. To those who, for whatever reason, shudder and tremble on this day, peace and comfort to you.
The rest of these thoughts are sparked, some days later, by things I’ve seen at other blogs.
1. No one is evil — not completely. All people are created in God’s image, and still bear it, shattered though it is by the fall. While some people are perfectly justified to cut off contact with / refuse to reconcile with certain people who have hurt them very badly (forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation), I don’t think that it’s as simple as calling those people pure evil. I think it’s possible to admit that everyone has a little good in them, a little of that divine image, without saying they’re pure goodness and light — without negating the evil those people have done — without invalidating the harm one has suffered at their hands. That’s it — there’s a difference between calling someone’s behavior (and in some cases, their intent) evil and calling the person evil. Evil is not born — it is made. There is always some reason (again, not the same as excuse or vindication) for the evil that is made.
2. Church matters. And not just the sermon. It is a means of grace to partake of communion together, to witness baptisms, to make offerings, to hear Scripture, to pray, to sing. Yes, by all means, there must be more to it than that — there should be fellowship, times to dig deeper into Scripture study, times to pray very personally and specifically for one another, times to help in practical ways. And good sermons improve church immensely — good sermons, in my estimation, being those that explicate Scripture carefully, from a foundation in grace and the Gospel, in a way that refreshingly reminds us of the basic things we most cling to, and yet also addresses the things we find puzzling and difficult and interesting. And I don’t think Sunday morning services should be watered down for the sake of the non-initiated — just that church folks should be sure to define terms, explain concepts, etc. Even though the church we attend is not our denomination, and I have taken issue with some things I’ve heard and seen there, I don’t think I could not be part of some kind of church with people outside my own family. And now that we’ve been there a while, some of the things that have bothered me are becoming more comfortable.
3. People have awfully strong opinions about numbers of children. Sometimes I catch some of that ill-feeling towards those who have only children. But then I remember that siblings are no guarantee of anything — they will not always get along, and their conflicts introduce as many problems as their cooperation solves. And while I don’t want to burden Amy alone with our care when we’re old and decrepit, I think that’s a very insufficient reason to have a second child. And, look, folks, I have good reasons for being wary of going through another pregnancy and newbornness.
4. Five minutes after I called my friend to see about getting together tomorrow or Tuesday, only to find her not only not answering the phone, but not even having the answering machine on, one of my Virginia friends called for a nice long chat. Nice.
