Rejoicing

A few weeks ago, Max and Jenny fulfilled their promise to their bridal party by having us all in to their new house for a special time of fellowship and dinner. Jenny served a delicious meal, which was heartily enjoyed, then we all gathered in and settled down for a time of singing and music making. What a blessing to gather together and rejoice in the goodness of God!



Jaelynn kept us all entertained with her grins and giggles. :-) I love you darling!



Anyone have a caption for this one?
Precious 'Livvie' girl

Joyless Christianity

I have very slowly, but very surely, been traveling through the book "Heaven- The Hearts Deepest Longing-" by Peter Kreeft. Many quotes from this book have made their way into my journal. Reading in the car one day, I came across this, and felt like shouting 'YES!' ( The rest of my family riding in the car with me probably wouldn't have appreciated that, so I refrained.)

The image of God so often portrayed by the Christian world is one of the 'Jesus- the white fleecy lamb' or the 'grandfather in the sky'. In other words, tame, dull, and passionless. Our God is an awesome God and anything but tame.


"Nietzsche's images of ordinary goodness are shallow, sheepish, and dull. The choice is between excitement without peace and peace without excitement. Can't true goodness, rationality, and peace be interesting? . . . Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien have often been praised as nearly the only modern novelists who can make good more fascinating than evil. (G.K. Chesterton a fourth, at least in 'The Man Who Was Thursday') Williams speaks of 'a terrible good', Tolkien, of 'the peril of light and joy'; and Lewis's Christ figure in the Chronicles of Narnia is Aslan, the great lion who is 'not a tame lion . . . but he's good.'

He goes on to say


"Alan Watts has diagnosed the major cause of the unattractiveness of Christian theology in the twentieth century as not an intellectual or moral failure but an aesthetic one: It's images of God are theologically and morally correct but aesthetically dull and powerless. Teilhard de Chardin also sees 'the heart of the problem' as an image problem: 'Man would seem to have no clear picture of the God he longs to worship.' It is because a joyless person can only imagine a joyless God. Perhaps one reason excitements like gambling, violence, achohol, and promiscuity are often temptations to the ethical and conventionally religious person is that his or her life is full of peace but not joy. It lacks the ingredient that is in joy but not in peace or happiness: passion.
. . . The need to yield to ecstasy- if not to God, to an irrational passion; if not to the mystery of light, then to the mystery of darkness.
. . . If we do not find joy where it is-in a lived love relationship with God-we will likely try to find it where it isn't-in the world."

Winter Fun at Sierra Summit!

Our first day at the mountain was with a group Peter Telian organized. Thanks to his effort and dedication, we all had a blast!


Enjoying another day with the McCrackens.

Can you pick out who is who?
Go Kaylee!

Simon is an awesome boarding partner. He is faster and more skilled than I, so I learn and am inspired at the same time.

Go Mrs. McCracken!

Chief Pierre and Connor ride up for the first run of the day.



The end of another day . . .

Singing of Spring

Spring, spring, it's a WONDERFUL thing!!!

Spring danced into our year with a burst of color. Like a fairy who spreads delight wherever she walks, spring has showered us with blessings. Wildflowers blanket our hills with beauty. The softness and cuddles of new puppies bring the joy of new life. Fresh swirls of wind make you want to close your eyes and stay in their softness forever. Sunlight . . . warm and enveloping, teases you as you stand at the sink . . . brings an ache to be outside. Peach and nectarine orchards ablaze with pink and snowy blooms whisper a promise of fruit in the summer. The garden beckons, the flowers call, the beauty surrounding us at this time is all a tribute to our awesome and mighty God, the Creator. We cannot enjoy nature in the way it is meant to be enjoyed unless we are finding our delight first in Him. He is the giver of all good things, He is the one that all creation praises.


A week or so ago, I took the little girls out to take pictures in the flowers. Here are a 'few'. :-)























Some experimental self portraits. :-)






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Some springtime photos of our animals:

My boy . . .

New puppies!