closer to the clouds

20 December 2007

alters

Exodus 20: 24b (NLT)
Build alters in the places where I remind you who I am, and I will come and bless you there.

What kind of incredible invitation is this from the Most High?
It is smack dab in the middle of the 10 commandments story... part of the ways "God instructed the people" (20:1) I don't ever remember being taught about this in Sunday school...too bad. I wonder what it would look like for me to live this out and teach it to my 3 little lovelies. I wonder if my definition of "blessing" would change... most definitely...and hopefully theirs too...

"...And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away on a journey, when you are lying down and when you are getting up again.
" Deuteronomy 6:6, 7 (NLT)

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14 December 2007

christmas van 2007

It has become a tradition...


Last year Mark surprised me by stringing the van with Christmas lights and planning an outing of Christmas light hunting/hot chocolate/Christmas cookies and pj's. I was not quite 2 months postpartum and needy (to say the least). This was Mark's loving remedy. It was completely delightful last year and even better this year since we decided it would be a yearly part of our Christmas celebration. So, to celebrate the end of the semester (yesterday was Mark's last final) and kick off our holiday as a family, the lights were strung, the pj's were donned, the hot chocolate was brewed and away we went.

This years "Annual Hostetler Christmas Van Light Hunt" winner goes to (drum roll please)...

... the Holiday Multi-media Light Show Display
...the "please don't ever let me have neighbors that do this" display
...the "can you imagine how you would feel about yourself as you set this up?" display


ChristmasVan07 from vaporlife on Vimeo.

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mary had a little Lamb (the Lamb)

Got this news in an email from an friend today and couldn't resist sharing...

"Between church and pre-k, Katie has made some very nice ornaments. My favorite is her colored picture of Mary that they made into an ornament-it is not so much the ornament itself as what she said to me when she showed it to me. She said (in a serious voice), " that's Mary... and that is not Mary who had a little lamb, but Mary who had Jesus." She just want to make sure I did not make the mistake. I loved it! It was so adorable. Now I think on it and smile but also ponder on it, saying " Yes it is not Mary who had a little lamb but Mary who had the Lamb of God. Emmanuel-God with us!"

Amen!

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12 December 2007

love and motorcylces

Got this card from my beloved yesterday...



holding on tight these days...
...sometimes feel like I am the one driving
...sometimes feel like I am falling off
...always glad for the man I travel with
...wouldn't want it any other way

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11 December 2007

on eagle's wings

new (to me) and lovely thoughts on Exodus 19:4...

"I bore you on eagles’ wings,
a high expression of the wonderful tenderness God had shown for them. It is explained, Deu. 32:11, 12. It denotes great speed. God not only came upon the wing for their deliverance (when the set time was come, he rode on a cherub, and did fly), but he hastened them out, as it were, upon the wing. He did it also with great ease, with the strength as well as with the swiftness of an eagle: those that faint not, nor are weary, are said to mount up with wings as eagles, Isa. 40:31. Especially, it denotes God’s particular care of them and affection to them. Even Egypt, that iron furnace, was the nest in which these young ones were hatched, where they were first formed as the embryo of a nation; when, by the increase of their numbers, they grew to some maturity, they were carried out of that nest. Other birds carry their young in their talons, but the eagle (they say) upon her wings, so that even those archers who shoot flying cannot hurt the young ones, unless they first shoot through the old one. Thus, in the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud and fire, the token of God’s presence, interposed itself between the Israelites and their pursuers (lines of defence which could not be forced, a wall which could not be penetrated): yet this was not all; their way so paved, so guarded, was glorious, but their end much more so: I brought you unto myself. They were brought not only into a state of liberty and honour, but into covenant and communion with God. This, this was the glory of their deliverance, as it is of ours by Christ, that he died, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. This God aims at in all the gracious methods of his providence and grace, to bring us back to himself, from whom we have revolted, and to bring us home to himself, in whom alone we can be happy. He appeals to themselves, and their own observation and experience, for the truth of what is here insisted on: You have seen what I did; so that they could not disbelieve God, unless they would first disbelieve their own eyes. They saw how all that was done was purely the Lord’s doing. It was not they that reached towards God, but it was he that brought them to himself."
(Taken from
Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible)

hoping to see the incarnation in this light today...
indeed the most amazing way He "brought [me] to [himself]...

"It was not they that reached towards God, but it was he that brought them to himself."
hallelujah



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06 December 2007

Yahweh

Loving and haunted by this song...

Take these shoes
Click clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit

Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean

Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don't make a fist

Take this mouth
So quick to criticize
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still I'm waiting for the dawn

Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean

Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?

Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will

What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break

Yahweh by U2

What is haunting you?
How is the great Romancer pursuing you?

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04 December 2007

nativity


It has been a warm and windy day. This morning we went out to get some supplies for cookie making and to story time. As we passed our neighbor's home Ethan said "Jesus' people fell down." Wow! "Jesus' people"- He sure got that one right!

PS - Mark says they are worshiping!

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03 December 2007

whistle while you work


whistle while you work from vaporlife on Vimeo.

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