Blessed New Year

“Happy New Year” is something that we say to each other at the end of one year and at the beginning of a new year. However, to be truly happy, we need God’s blessing and guidance in all that we hope to do and accomplish. In August of this year, as I was thinking ahead about my life, I told my family that I was hoping to be able to make Christmas and the New Year. And here I am, on December 31, 2011, writing this blog post.

This past year has been one of many, many changes for us. In January we traded in our 7 passenger SUV and downsized to a 5 passenger vehicle. In February, we sold the double home we have lived in with my parents for 25 years and downsized into a much smaller 2-bedroom bungalow in Dundas. My parents moved to a Christian retirement home in Hamilton where several other families of our church live, including my mother-in law. During the months of March-April, I was being tested for ALS, and was diagnosed in May. Lena took two months of vacation/leave in July and August so that we could spend time at our trailer on Pigeon Lake near Peterborough. In August, I resigned from my position as Principal at the school where I have served for 33 years, and I withdrew from active duty as an elder in my church. In September we renovated our ensuite bathroom to make it wheel-chair accessible. In October/November, Lena took a two month compassion leave from her work and is now into a six-month leave of absence. Thankfully, her supervisor was able to keep her job open for her so that she can return to work after I am gone. In November, our minister and friend for the past 22 years accepted a call to a congregation in the Netherlands. We spent 2 relaxing weeks in Florida, in November, with our close friends, using a wheel-chair accessible van which we purchased with the help of another dear friend. In December, we have begun physical therapy, occupational therapy, and respiratory therapy to make life more comfortable. Thank-you for the many calls, emails, cards, visits and loving support received in the past year.

Despite all of these major, traumatic, life changing events in our lives, God has been good to Lena and I in 2011. We have been surrounded and carried by the love and prayers of our family, friends, and members of our church and school community. God has graciously given us a rich measure of His abiding presence and peace in our hearts, enabling us to cope day by day. We know that the year 2012 will be difficult for our family, but God promises "I will never leave you nor forsake you", and we hold on to that promise. We are living one day at a time, in dependence on Him.

The Blessedness of Heaven – by J. C. Ryle

The cares of this world, the necessary duties of life, the demands of our families, the work of our various stations and callings — all these things appear to eat up our days, and to make it impossible to have long quiet times of communion with God's people.

But, blessed be God, it shall not always be so. The hour comes, and shall soon be here, when "good-bye" and "farewell" shall be words that are laid aside and buried forever! When we meet in a world where the former things
have passed away, where there is . . .
no more sin,
no more sorrow,
no more poverty,
no more work of body or work of brains,
no more need of anxiety for families,
no more sickness,
no more pain,
no more old age,
no more death,
no more change
when we meet in that endless state of being, calm, and restful, and unhurried — who can tell what the bliss and blessedness will be?

A Striking Example of Faith – by J.C. Ryle

The conduct of the wise men is a striking example of faith. They believed in Christ when they had never seen Him – but that was not all. They believed in Him when the Scribes and Pharisees were unbelieving – but that again was not all. They believed in Him when they saw Him a little infant on Mary’s knee, and worshiped Him as a king. This was the crowning point of their faith. They saw no miracles to convince them. They heard no teaching to persuade them. They saw no signs of divinity and greatness to overawe them. They saw nothing but a new-born infant, helpless and weak, and needing a mother’s care like any one of ourselves. And yet when they saw that infant, they believed that they saw the divine Savior of the world. ‘They fell down and worshiped Him.’

We read of no greater faith than this in the whole volume of the Bible. It is a faith that deserves to be placed side by side with that of the penitent thief. The thief saw one dying the death of a criminal, and yet prayed to Him and ‘called Him Lord.’ The wise men saw a new-born babe on the lap of a poor woman, and yet worshiped Him and confessed that He was Christ. Blessed indeed are those that can believe in this fashion!

Family Portraits

Christmas is the time when we spend a lot of time with our family, eating, visiting and very often it's also the time for the inevitable family photo. This was especially my desire this year as it will most likely be our last Christmas together as a complete family with our beloved patriarch still with us.

We had agreed to meet on the 24th for the photo shoot.

 

Willem bought Joni a remote control for her camera so that we did not need to bring in another photographer. Joni set up her tripod on the driveway and the arranging and repositioning of the families began. Finally she had it to her liking and she remotely clicked away. After about 200 clicks she decided that she would probably have a few good ones in there, so she took apart the tripod and put her camera away. By this time we were all pretty chilled and we headed into the house for a nice cup of hot coffee.

 

Here is the final product.

 

but wait..........WHERE'S WALDO???

 

We walked into the house and sure enough, there was little Jack sitting on the couch with his nose buried in an Archie comic!!

 

Oh no..... "you mean you were here all the time? You're not in any of the pictures? ".  " I didn't know we were going to take a picture" he replied and then we all began to rib Joni about not knowing how many children she has, and "you know you have too many children when......." etc.

 

Well, we had a good laugh about it when we realized that none of us had missed him and when Opa started saying "Where's Waldo??" that really got us all laughing.

 

We all went outside again and repeated the whole process. ( And of course the first ones were the best!)

 

Here is the final picture with the whole family.