Seasons

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot..."  Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

Lately I have been thinking a lot about seasons.  Nature, life, relationships - they all have seasons, a natural order of things.  Each season brings with it preparation for what is to come, and reminders of what has been.

In nature, the current season is Autumn here in the United States.  That brings cooler weather, bright colored leaves falling to the ground, pumpkins and harvest parties and apple cider, football, Thanksgiving, and preparation for winter.

In life, I guess my current season is somewhere around Spring - possibly summer, although I feel like I'm not quite there yet... I am young but I am growing and maturing and growing roots deep into the foundations that my parents and mentors have given to me.

In my relationship with God, however, I am in an interesting season now, or so it seems to me.  This seems to be a season of tearing down, of throwing out, of uprooting things that have grown in places they should not be.  A season of purification, correction, and discipline.... a season of preparation.

Sunday started the season of Advent, or the joyful preparation and expectation of the arrival of Christ - both in his birth those many years ago, and in his triumphant return.  Each new year that I celebrate Advent, it is dearer and more special to me.  This year, I find it touching that while I am in a season of preparation and purification, the time has come for the church to begin a season of joyful preparation as well.  It feels personal this year.

I was reading in Leviticus about the scape goat sacrifice.  Have you read about that before?  I feel as if I had, but for some reason, it never hit home for me like it did recently.

Leviticus 16:20-22 “When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness."

In a devotional I was reading, it said to imagine being Aaron and having a live goat in front of you - the devotional suggested that, if you had a pet, to place your hands on the pet in the same way Aaron was instructed by God, and to "confess to God your acts of rebellion, your bad attitudes, and your harsh thoughts about others." and to try and experience the feeling of transferring your sins to this animal.
Now, this isn't the way that things work today - we know this - but the devotional was trying to get me to grasp the gravity of this action - and I got it.

I was sitting next to my sweet Daphne, and I couldn't do it - I couldn't imagine transferring my sins to her, because she didn't do anything wrong.  She was not responsible - I was.  I tried to conceptualize being in that place with Aaron and transferring sins to a goat, but I couldn't do that either.  That goat was innocent, too.  The thought brought tears to my eyes.  The scape goat wasn't even killed.  It was led off into the wilderness and set free.  But my scape goat - he was killed.  He died a terrible, painful, humiliating death for sins that he did not commit.  When I think about that - that the son of God, the creator of the Universe - took my sin and my shame and my humiliation and died for me?  I love him more... and I love me less... and I know how much I need him, and how much his sacrifice means for me.

May you grasp the depth of his love for you during this season of your life and in this season of Advent.


♥

a thought to break the silence

the following is something i wrote on christmas night...

i grew up singing. i don't remember life before i began singing on stage.
mom says when i was nursing, i would hum "jesus loves me"...
i don't remember that.

it's become a catch phrase between us, though... a saying. if we are talking about something that happened before i was born, and i don't remember it and don't know why i don't remember or don't realize it was before my time, mom says, "that was before you began to sing..."

my dad was a leader of a country music round up band: basically, a bunch of musicians who loved to play but didn't quit their day jobs. they put on a show every saturday night, and as soon as i could hold a microphone, i was up there with them. the first song i ever learned was this cheesy cajun song "don'tcha mess with my toot toot"... it must have been popular at the time, and it had easy words to remember... and i know i sang it wrong because in my head, the words have always been incorrect...

((correct words: "you'll be born in a birth suit"... my head said: "you'll be born in a Bert (as in sesame street Bert) suit..."))

the first "real" song i sang was an Elvis classic - Wooden Heart.
do you know the words? they're simple...

can't you see i love you? please don't break my heart in two.
that's not hard to do 'cause i don't have a wooden heart.
and if you said goodbye then i know that i would cry...
baby, i would die 'cause i don't have a wooden heart.

there's no strings upon this love of mine - it was always you from the start.
so treat me nice, treat me good, treat me like a lover should.
'cause i'm not made of wood and i don't have a wooden heart.

we stopped the saturday night performances when i was 9. the venue wanted to bring in another band to rent the building b/c they thought they'd make more profit, so they came up with some shammy reason to kick us out... that sucked. still, we got together on holidays and just randomly to sing and catch up - and we played a few shows together each year until i was about 12.

i sing everyday. i sing to express myself... i make up silly songs and i sing to cheer up my mom or to pick on matt...i identify with elf when he sings, "i'm singing! i'm in a store and i'm singing!"

this is going somewhere.... i promise.

since my dad died, it's been bittersweet to hear songs we sang together... or to remember the songs we made up together... and mom and i still sing them, we cheer each other on. we have a few tapes of dad singing, and sometimes we listen to them and reminisce.

dad always sang johnny cash songs. i could always tell when he was pumped about a show because he'd go all out and dress in all black, complete with black cowboy hat. he played bass guitar and it sounded more like a stand up bass than i've ever heard an electric bass sound.
he sang other artists, too, but johnny was his favorite because they had the same vocal range, and the crowd really got into that.
he would make jokes about how johnny always said he'd put his best side forward, then dad would turn around with his back to the audience to start the song...

i miss my dad. especially this time of year... especially now.
he died on december 29... just a few days from now.

i've wondered for years how i would incorporate my dad's memory into my wedding without changing the whole focus of the ceremony. m and i discussed his walking out to a recording of my dad singing johnny cash's "i walk the line." it felt like a good idea but... it still didn't feel like the "right" answer.

tonight my mom and i were making a list of things to do before Sunday, and she brought up ceremony music. we got to talking about finding a recording of dad singing "i walk the line" and she said my brother argued that dad never performed that song. i told her that he did, and reminded her of how he would sing it - demonstrating how he would start out humming...and got lower each verse, just like johnny. she laughed and said we should have a recording of me singing it like dad...
we talked about recordings of me singing with dad...
and then, the perfect idea walked through the door and sat down in my lap.

i have a recording of a concert. my dad is talking and he says, "There's not a performer here tonight who loves this more than our next performer does... she's going to sing Elvis Presley's classic, Wooden Heart, for you tonight. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Miss R... G...." and then, in my little 9 year old voice, i begin to sing.

and so it is, that my dad will not be there to walk me down the aisle... but he will introduce me at my wedding... and i will walk out to little me singing... "there's no strings upon this love of mine - it was always you from the start."

i am so... pleased. i know inside of me that this is EXACTLY the perfect way to make my Dad apart of my special day and to acknowledge his importance in my life.