Some thoughts

Last week I wrote that Graham and Isaac were feeling better.  Then Graham had to return home from work on Monday and he didn't go into work on Tuesday due to his cold and then it hit Isaac for the rest of the week.  Isaac's library program started up again this week but we skipped it as it felt like -40 degrees outside - crazy.  Hopefully we'll be able to go this Tuesday.  I'm healthy and praying that I stay that way.

Earlier this week I was speaking with Isaac about Graham being at work.  Isaac said, "You don't need to go to work Mommy."  I decided that I wanted to know more so I asked him, "Why don't I have to go to work?"  He actually responded by telling me, "Because you're a woman and women don't work."  Oh my.  He's three!  No thank you.  What have I done?  I let him know that in fact I do work (giving examples) and that before he came along I worked a lot outside of our home and explained that many many women do work outside the home.   I'm thinking he's come to this conclusion for a few main reasons.  First, I speak quite a bit about how thankful we are that Daddy works hard all day so that I can stay home with Isaac and we thank Graham for working at his job and shovelling snow, etc.  I don't usually use the word work to talk about what I do at home.  Also, he's mainly exposed to me, Grandmas, and other stay-at-home moms though he would of course see women working at the grocery store, library, and places we would visit. 

Isaac has the idea that as he gets bigger and bigger, Graham and I will get smaller and smaller.  He told me that he'll make me lunch and supper when this happens. 

"I'm one of Josiah's books."

Isaac was looking through a box of "Josiah's books" during one of his quiet times.  He called me to come to him and when I arrived he was on top of the basket of books and told me that he was one of Josiah's books.  I told him that he was Josiah's favourite book. 

Isaac became most upset at supper yesterday because he told us he had eaten too much food and wanted dessert.  He told us that his supper went to his stomach but dessert would go to his head.  I left this one to Graham as he's better at getting Isaac to eat.  He told Isaac that he needed to eat two more bites and then he could have dessert.  Isaac said, no, he'd eat ten.  As it turned out, there were only seven bites left so he finished his plate and then ate a cookie. 

Isaac received some paints this Christmas so he painted his first painting with a paintbrush this week (he's done finger painting and Popsicle stick painting in the past). 

I've done quite a bit of baking this week.  I've been trying to use up things in my cupboard and freezer.  I bought ingredients and was hoping to bake for Christmas but that didn't end up happening.  Isaac usually likes to help me bake but he still leaves the room when I have to use the mixer as he doesn't like the noise. 

One perk of Graham working at the library is that he is able to borrow books from different libraries.  He ordered "For All The Saints?  Remembering the Christian Departed" by N.T. Wright.  You may recall my question about the period of time between one's death and resurrection.  I read most of another of N.T. Wright's books but I wasn't quite clear on where he stood (as this question wasn't the point of that book) but he's very clear in this book.

Grandma L. makes lovely sweaters!

He writes, "... all the Christian departed are in substantially the same state, that of restful happiness.  This is not the final destiny for which they are bound, namely the bodily resurrection; it is a temporary resting place."  Again he says, "I have tried to articulate what I take to be the solid, substantial and central New Testament hope, based on the death and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of his Spirit:  that all God's people in Christ are assured of being with Christ himself, in a glorious restful existence, until the day when everything is renewed, when heaven and earth at last become one, and we are given new bodies to live and love and celebrate and rule in God's new creation."  This rest includes awareness.  To me, this idea seems to correspond better to many passages about death in the Bible.  However, I think the Bible is vague about this time period - perhaps because the big excitement is the resurrection, not the time in between. 

I still find it a little obscure - resting but aware with Jesus and no body - and yet the idea of Josiah having a rest with Jesus is actually quite glorious.  I should confess that when I was little I daydreamed about going to school in my double bed in my pyjamas so the idea of a complete rest in paradise with Jesus sounds amazing!  It's easy to look back at our wonderful pictures of Josiah laughing and think that his life was like that but it wasn't.  I'd grab the camera and snap the picture when he was smiling (and we are so thankful for all those precious moments, photos, and memories).  We have some other pictures and videos that tell more of the reality.  He had a hard life.  He seemed most at peace when he was sleeping. 

I like what he writes about praying for the dead: "True prayer is an outflowing of love; if I love someone, I will want to pray for them, not necessarily because they are in difficulties, not necessarily because there is a particular need of which I'm aware, but simply because holding them up in God's presence is the most natural and appropriate thing to do ....  Now love doesn't stop at death.  In fact, grief could almost be defined as the form love takes when the object of love has been removed; it is love embracing an empty space, love kissing thin air and feeling the pain of that nothingness.  But there is no reason at all why love should discontinue the practice of holding the beloved in prayer before God."  Wright wrote of a professor and layman in the church whose three adult children had died "and he had come to realize that it was perfectly in order to continue to hold those beloved children before God in prayer ... because he wanted to talk to God about them, to share as it were his love for them with the God who had given them and had inexplicably allowed them to be taken away again."  Our prayers when Graham leaves in the morning and before bed include, "Please say hi to Josiah for us."  I ask God to tell Josiah I love him and miss him.

It's past my bedtime.  We had a lovely dinner at our friends' home this evening.  We're looking forward to church in the morning.

Thank you for your prayers!

Blessings,

Elizabeth

Psalm 9:9-10
The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.  And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.