Heritage is More Than Skin Deep

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Lynn

So, how did you spend your long weekend?  Here in Canada, the first weekend in August, along with being one of the busiest camping weekends of the summer, it is also the weekend that is filled with colourful festivals across Canada to celebrate our Canadian heritage.  Now that’s an oxymoron in itself, because Canada does not have one distinctive heritage as such.  Canada is a melting pot of cultures and faiths so the Canadian identity is not so much a singular, distinct national identity but a colourful blend of nationalities that make up our Canadian society.  In other words, if ever there was a culture that could be defined as the Heinz 57 variety…Canadian would be it!

Now for years we have usually been camping on the Heritage Day long weekend as a family, but this year we decided to have a “staycation” meaning we stayed home and instead became tourists in our own home town.  So on Monday, my husband, my youngest daughter and I toured into Calgary and attended the Heritage Day Festival at Prince’s Island Park.  My husband is Canadian but was born in Germany, and has Scottish and British roots; I am Canadian with Danish roots, so we fit the “Heinz 57” mould pretty well.  But before heading there, we detoured over to see the “Body Worlds” exhibit at the Science Centre first.

If you have not had a chance to see the show a note of warning, it is not for the squeamish.  “The BODY WORLDS exhibitions are first-of-their-kind exhibitions through which visitors learn about anatomy, physiology, and health by viewing real human bodies, using an extraordinary process called Plastination a groundbreaking method for specimen preservation invented by Dr. von Hagens in 1977.  Each exhibition features more than 200 real human specimens, including whole-body plastinates, individual organs, organ configurations and transparent body slices. The specimens on display stem from the body donation program that Gunther von Hagens established in 1983.  The exhibitions also allow visitors to see and better understand the long-term impact of diseases, the effects of tobacco consumption and the mechanics of artificial supports such as knees and hips. To date, more than 29 million people around the world have viewed the BODY WORLDS exhibits.”  (http://www.bodyworlds.com/en.html)

My fourteen year old daughter, was not as thrilled about seeing the “insides” of bodies as we were and on more than one occasion used the term “gross”, however she had to admit that it was extremely interesting.  She will never become a doctor or nurse, that is obvious.  I was absolutely fascinated by the entire exhibit because each display vividly depicted how “fearfully and wonderfully made” we all are.  Looking at the bodies, stripped away of skin, exposing muscles, tendons, blood vessels, and nerves, I couldn’t help but marvel how perfectly we are “knit together”.  Nothing is there by accident, each organ, muscle or nerve serves a unique purpose in our bodies and the exhibit also shows what happens to the body if it is damaged by disease or injury.  We are fragile creations but it is obvious we did not “evolve” to become human, we were created by a magnificent Creator.  I thought it interesting that an exhibit that was for all intents and purposes filled with dead people actually celebrated Life!

I was still pondering on that when we walked over to Prince’s Island to watch the Heritage Day festivities there.  I was struck by the diversity of dress, skin colours and speech.  It was like hundreds of cultures gathered together to celebrate our differences as well as our similarities.  On stage, performers from Chile, Brazil, Guatemala, Mexico, India, China, Japan, Hungary, Russia etc., were dressed in their national costumes and dancing their traditional folk dances.  Booths were set up all around the park so we could sample foods from around the world and buy crafts, pottery, jewellery, and clothes from every country.  It was spectacular.

Surrounded by all these “Canadians”, I was suddenly struck by something very profound.  At the Body Worlds exhibit every body displayed there was identical under the skin.  The only distinct difference was whether the body was male or female.  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27)

Skin colour, race, religion, thought, opinion and ethnic origin may define us culturally, morally and ethically distinctive, but strip all that away and we see that  our true common bond as human beings is our connection to our Creator!

And one day “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  (Philippians 2:10-11)

Amen and Amen!

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Summer Weddings

Posted on July 20, 2010 by Lynn

“Were we ever that young?” I asked my husband as we watched the young couple exchange rings.  Daniel and Sarah looked into each other’s eyes and they smiled.  Their vows exchanged before God and those assembled signifying the start to what we hope will be a long and happy lifetime together.  Do they have any idea what they were getting into?  I’m not saying it negatively.  Thirty-one years with my husband gives me some credibility to share some insights into wedded bliss.  It is not always blissful, (sorry Daniel and Sarah), but it is a huge adventure!

I married my best friend in a tiny Presbyterian Church in Sooke B.C. on June 2, 1979.  Just before I arrived to the church, Charles was sequestered with Rev. Lin in the Pastor’s office that was located just to the left of the podium.  I have it on good authority that just as I was coming up the church steps, one of Charles’ army buddies ran up to the door and pounded on it yelling, “Run for it!  There’s still time!”  (Thanks, Mike 🙂 )

Luckily, Charles did not “run for it” but smiled at me as I came down the aisle and vowed that through sickness, health, love and sorrow, he would be faithful to me alone…and he meant it!  Now I know a lot of young people who have exchanged those same kinds of vows and meant every word they said but then when the testing came (as it always does), they crumbled under the pressure.  Vows were forgotten and promises broken when everyday life put obstacles and challenges in front of the couple.  They discovered that marriage isn’t easy.  “Run for it!” seemed like the only way out.

Thirty one years have seen Charles and I face job losses together; infertility, crisis pregnancies, adoption, financial crises, household moves, deaths of parents, depression (me), work challenges, and life threatening illness (me).  We didn’t get through those times on our own strength.  It would have been easy to “run for it”, instead we journeyed through those times together hand in hand, and remembered the covenant we had made to each other before God on our wedding day to “love one another until death do us part”. I balk at those that say, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry”…Love means “saying sorry” a lot and meaning it!  It’s admitting we’re wrong or at fault when we mess up and we need forgiveness.  It’s crying and saying “sorry” and then forgiving one another and then saying “I love you” and really meaning it!  (Kind of sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  Sounds like the kind of love that the Father has for His children.)

Bailey and Erik exchanged their vows only weeks after Sarah and Daniel.  Once again I turned to Charles and asked him, “Were we ever that young?”  Another ceremony, another young couple looking lovingly into each other’s eyes.  I can’t get over how many of the young people we have known for years at our church are now walking hand in hand to the altar to be married.  I remember teaching them in Sunday School!  Surely I haven’t aged that much…have I?  Bailey looked radiant in her gown, her dark hair cascading down her shoulders.

I couldn’t help but flashback remembering the vows Charles and I spoke to one another thirty-one years ago.  Did we have any idea how poignant those words were?  Did Charles think about the significance of those words: “I will love Lynn in sickness and health”, when twenty-two years later he was shaving my head bald after my hair started to fall out in clumps after my first chemotherapy treatment?  Love is not spoken in words, it is spoken in action.

I pray that Sarah and Daniel, Bailey and Erik, Robbie and Robyn always remember that.  Oh, and remember too that  God is control.  He will never leave you or forsake you.  Promise each other that you will never “run for it”, no matter what, but that you will stay the course…hand in hand…always and forever.  Amen.

“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.”  Proverbs 16:9  (Charles and my life verse).

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The Student Has Become the Master…

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Lynn

As a Sunday School teacher, VBS leader, children’s and youth leader at church, one of the most rewarding things I have been blessed to do over these thirty years is impart some of my “wisdom” to a child and then see that child take that little nugget and run with it on their own.  It’s like watching a child try to run with a kite.  You don’t know if they’ll have the stamina or energy to get that kite off the ground and then it suddenly leaps out of their hand and soars higher and higher in the sky, going to even greater heights than you could ever have imagined.

I have had the awesome privilege of being around long enough to have diapered the bottoms of babies and toddlers in the church nursery to watching those same “babies” graduate high school!  I have been blessed to be their Youth Sunday School teacher and then weep with emotion when they preached their first sermon!  I have laughed at their hair styles, tongue piercings, tattoos, and crazy clothing.  I have tried to understand their music through these many years and I even like some of it… or at the very least I have managed to tolerate the beat!

I can count some of the dents in the walls and carpet stains in the church that were caused by children and youth.  I remember the water fights and the tracked in mud.  I suppose those are the necessary casualties when a church prizes its’ children and youth over a building.

Many of the young people who now teach alongside me at Vacation Bible School (VBS) this year, were once my students!  I remember the girls as kindergarteners with lace and curls, who have now grown into the teenage beauties and sports stars today who wouldn’t be caught dead wearing frills and lace.  I watch as they interact with their class, teaching the same stories I once shared with them.  I want to just drop to my knees and say, “Thank you, Jesus.”  I watch some of the youth boys and remember when they were the ones who loved to interrupt me as I tried to tell a Bible story in class and then would refuse to do anything else except play with the blocks and small cars.  Now they are the tall and lanky leaders who tirelessly give piggy back rides to squealing preschoolers and assist small hands to make crafts and wipe up spilled drinks… (ahhh, add yet another stain to the church carpet).   Again, I lift my eyes and whisper, “Thank you, Jesus!”

My heart absolutely bursts with joy to see those youth growing in Christ.  I have been present at their baptisms, and I have heard their testimonies.  I have prayed for them, wept with them, and rejoiced with them.  Many of my “kids”, as I call those I have been fortunate enough to call my students over the years, are adults who now serve on the mission field, or are going to seminary or are serving on a church staff.  Several of them are accomplished speakers, ministers and authors.  Many are married and raising families of their own.  “Thank-you, Jesus!” I say again.

I passed a little preschooler today at VBS who ran up to me unexpectedly and he gave me a huge hug and a high-five and I smiled.  I couldn’t help but picture him running with a little kite…

Psalm 78:1-7
“O my people, hear my teaching; listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old – what we have heard and know, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power, and the wonders he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands.”

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