Family, Faith, Formation and a Scarecrow

There's a lot to be said about family.  Trust me, I've been reading and writing about it for weeks.  There's much more to be said about faith.  Trust me, I've been reading and writing about it for years.  Formation... yeah, you get the idea.  A newer word to my vocabulary but one that has occupied a great deal of mental space over the past year.

So, when our church recently re-launched our Wednesday night programming, we decided to use that time to begin a Family Faith Formation event where families come together and engage around the ideas of "filling our toolbox" with tools to grow in faith and love with each other.  Our family has been joining with other families on Wednesday nights to have some fun together and spend some time intentionally in God's Word and growing spiritually together.  It's loud.  It's messy.  It's basically like all of our living rooms squashed into our elementary room.  It's family life in all its glory and its not-so glory.

I had my concerns about how effective these nights would be.  Would the kids be too distracting?  Would the parents appreciate the tools and resources or would they be too focused on their kids' behavior to absorb anything?  Would the kids be able to gain from the experience or would they just come and go because Mom and Dad made them? Could an event that ranged in age from 1-ahem, older than that, actually lead to Family. Faith. Formation?

My answer came in the form of a scarecrow.  Yup, a scarecrow.  And not even a very attractive scarecrow.  A rather unattractive scarecrow with a paper face and grass hands.

Yesterday, I was busy cooking some meals for some new moms and asked Hannah if she would please take Caleb to the playground.  This was the equivalent of me asking her to scale Mt. Everest, or so I assume from her reaction.  I told her it would be really helpful for me if she could just please keep him occupied until I got the meals done.  Grudgingly I heard her call out, "Caaaa-lllllllleeeebbb!!!" as she slunk out the door.

Grateful, I returned to my task (happily because you all know I love the therapy of the kitchen).  Next think I know Caleb comes running into the house yelling something about clothes and crows.  Okay, he's happy, I'm happy.  Then Hannah walks by with marshmallow roasters and a cornucopia filled with fake grapes.  Whatever, she's happy, I'm happy.  A small crowd of children started gathering out side of my home collecting sticks and grass.  I'm hearing talk of paper faces and stronger sticks.  Finally, my cooking done, I head outside to find this little man.

What in the world does this have to do with Family Faith Formation?  Simply this.  I walked over to see what they had done and Hannah smiled broadly at me as I looked at her and said, "You pursued peace."  She nodded and began to explain quickly all the attributes of the little scarecrow eerily similar to my son in height and fashion.

You see the night before, we studied Psalm 34:14, "Turn away from evil.  Seek peace and pursue it."  We talked about how peace wasn't something that always came naturally.  Hannah in fact pointed out that you had to chase it, choose it, and sometimes make it be.  That day, she had to choose peace.  She had to choose to "be" in that moment with Caleb rather than just grudgingly submit to Mom's request.  She pursued peace.  She made a scarecrow.  The result?  Happy mom, happy boy, happy Hannah, happy neighborhood kids, happy friends walking by smiling at our "scarecrow", happy memories... peace in our home.

Family.  Faith.  Formation. It all came together quite nicely in the image of a scarecrow.  Take the time to talk about your faith with your kids.  Our conversation lasted a moment.  The impact will last a lifetime.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Grace, Family and Community - Embree Asbury adventure, Year #2

I cannot tell you how many false starts this blog post has had.  I am finding it hard to process, let alone, share all the things going on in the Embree home at the start of this new academic year.  As I shared in my last blog, the starting of a new job, classes for all of us (yes, even Caleb will be going to school this year), and a change in our norm is shaping us in new ways and bending us in others.

A family at study

I can tell you this: God is good and we are convinced now more than ever that He is at work in our lives individually and as a family to equip us for "good works prepared in advance" for the glory of God.  It is a humbling place to be.  As I read scholars and students who have studied families and ministry for years, I am humbled by how little I know and how much I have to learn.  As Luke takes verses in English and "parses" them in Greek, we are amazed at how God uses language to share with us His love.  As Hannah served at our church's Manna Meal, she was enthralled with how God could use her hands and feet to bless strangers and embody His love.  As Naomi writes her songs and dances her dances, she is excited about God's creation and beauty and movement and melody.  And as Caleb climbs up in our laps, hugs us and says, "I love you" and then "Mommy, Jesus loves you too!" he is recognizing that still small voice that speaks to him even now in his youth.

And we all grow deeper into this thing called grace lived out through family and shared in the heart of community.

I will never look at the word "family" the same again, after the classes I am taking.  Does family refer only to those you are related to by blood?  Or does family expand to those who serve functions in your life as caregiver, mentor, and friend?  Does family mean you share a last name or a common purpose?  Does it entail biological markers or heartfelt bonds?  

I think our family is learning the answer to these questions is ... yes.  It does.  Our family of the flesh, both near and far, and our family of the heart, bound by the love of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, has been shaped and molded by these experiences we now undergo.  Distance has tested love and love stood the test.  Time has challenged connections but it lost to friendships forged long ago.  We have grown our family and in doing so, grown ourselves.  

Luke reading Scripture at chapel

This may all sound like the ramblings of a word-weary seminary student who is currently writing on average 3 papers a week or, for those of you who have experienced this type of growth, a familiar sentiment.  As I attended chapel today and added my voice to the student body singing that there were "10,000 reasons" to praise our God and as I walked across campus greeting friends and neighbors and checked Facebook to connect with those farther away, I could not help but once again be thankful for ... my family, here, there, biological and "of the heart," by structural definition or functional, in spirit and in flesh... my family.    Whether we've shared years of shared life moments or days of shared new laughter, I find myself feeling quite blessed and quite rich in love and community.

This year at Asbury has already been so affirming of why we are here.  I don't know what the future holds I only know we are here for now to learn and grow.  We've been challenged in chapel this year to take a posture of humility and allow God to shake our self-reliance and shape our Christ-reliance.  As I look to the year ahead, I don't know how else we could approach it but with our arms open wide, our hands held up in prayer and our knees bent before God's throne, relying on the prayers of those who love us and the grace of our Savior to see us through  And really, is there any better place to be?  

So thank you all for seeing us through Year #1.  Here's to a grace-filled Year #2.  And to usher it in, this song has played over and over in my heart..

O for a thousand tongues to sing, My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King, The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God, Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name.