Our youngest son is a teenager who has been taller than I am for several months now, but it is still tempting to think of him as a little boy.  So, when he got a sever case of road rash this week, I almost suggested that he sit out the last minute trail race that the boys had planned for this weekend.  After all, he couldn't bend his knee without breaking open the wound.  How could he run 5+ miles on gnarly trails without reinjuring himself?  Well, he didn't.  He fell and tore open several wounds on knees and hands, and added some new ones.  Then he got up and finished the race.  Then he didn't even think that he needed a bandage to stop the bleeding.  He had run two miles with blood running down his legs.  Who needs bandaids after that?  As my daughter and I were talking about the situation, she very wisely observed that this race and the fall in it, were exactly what her brother needed.  He needs to do difficult things that hurt.  He needs opportunities to crash and burn and get hurt and decide that he can still run when it doesn't feel good.  Why have we taught our children that running trail races with bandaged hands that get torn open again is a good thing?  It isn't about the racing or the placing.  It is about building a life of character that says when life is difficult, when I don't want to do the right thing, when I have to stand alone for my faith, I can endure.  We know that God has to be the one to preserve his people, but we also know that he tries the faithful in furnaces to purify their gold.  One way that our family has started to learn the skills needed to endure suffering is to practice on the trails and in the mountains.  After the race, he still wanted to play in the river.  He isn't all grown up quite yet!

"Poor cow."

Due to some teaching that I was doing late last year, I had spent much time pouring over an already dear passage of Scripture.  I have loved Romans since high school, and the years have just deepened my love for the truths that Paul lays out there for us to wrestle with.  For the topic of hope, the eighth chapter of Romans, was our jumping-off point and summary statement all rolled into one, so the echoes of it are still bouncing around in my head.  The children are currently reading ten or more chapters of scripture a day for their 2024 Bible reading plan, so we have had many mealtime conversations about "the long lobe of the liver," and it's role in the sacrificial system that God gave to the people of Israel as outlined in the book of Leviticus.  Those sacrifices were the topic of conversation with our eighteen-year-old son as he and I walked around the dog park just yesterday.  Last night, he picked up the hand-carved cow from our manger scene, (yes, we still have our Christmas decorations up) and said, "Poor cow."  He was thinking of the part that that cow had to play in the story.  At the time of Christ's birth, that cow had a very high chance of being made a sacrifice in the temple.  That kind of a death isn't what God created that animal for.  Our son has always had a tender heart and loved animals dearly.  He was seeing even that wooden animal with eyes of Biblical understanding and compassion.  But then, God brought to mind Romans 8:18–22 where it says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." (ESV)  In that same nativity scene, just to the left is a wooden figure representing the Incarnate God who came to be the Lamb of God who would restore the entire creation and remove the need for any more of God's good creation to be subjected to futility or given over to any other purpose other than the ones for which they were created in God's good world.  So as you put away this year, or get out next year your families' nativity, remember that our Lord came to set all of his creation free from the curse and bondage of sin.  I hope that your nativity has sheep and donkeys and cattle. Because after all, the sheep had as much reason to celebrate as the shepherds gathered around the manger.