Thanksgiving

Sycamore

This is Sycamore, my latest artistic piece of glass work. It was conceived, designed, and built here in New Mexico, on the Jicarilla Apache Nation. Sycamore was definitely an inspired design; it came to me whole, in vivid color. I sketched it... and never changed the design. I finished it, even though I had Christmas orders; Sycamore just demanded to be complete.

Six Crows

While I was building Sycamore, a Native pastor from Dulce stopped by to see my husband. In the course of conversation, she realized I was a stained glass artist and excitedly asked to see my work. She saw Sycamore and asked me if I could make one with crows in the branches. I said, "Sure" before I even really thought about it. She asked me to make it in certain colors as a Christmas gift for her husband. Six Crows is the result.

Our lives have taken on a similar twist: Everything's just a little bit more: We had a multi-church Thanksgiving service on Sunday night. We planned our songs, begged another pastor's wife to play piano for us (It wasn't too hard!), and went to the service.

As is somewhat typical here, the service began about 20 minutes after it was scheduled to begin. And also typical, it was lovely! Not highly polished, but oh so Real. Real joy, Real passion for Christ, Real friendship and Real fellowship. And following the service... a DESSERT potluck! Yum!

Last night, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a Native family. When I asked what we could bring, I was told "Kulwi." I asked for a repeat and got the same answer. I apologized and asked if the man inviting us could say it one more time. Very deliberately, the man said, "Cool Whip." So we brought Cool Whip!

Brad, my husband, was invited to say a prayer before we ate. Everybody bowed their heads while Brad prayed. Then the eldest man present was asked to pray also. We bowed our heads again, and he prayed in Apache. Our almost-7-yr-old, sitting next to me, glanced up in surprise, then bowed her head. We listened to words we could not understand, all heads bowed in fellowship. I decided trying to guess what he was saying wasn't gracious, so I started praying silently for each person present.

During dinner, we ended up sitting with this man and his wife. He told us story after story of his childhood on the Jicarilla Apache Reservation. He was hilarious!

So, in all things, art and life, we are being "seasoned" by this place and these people. We are so very blessed to be among them; God's plan for us was better than we could have imagined.

And we are thankful.

Putting the Pieces Together

There's a stage of every stained glass panel that looks like this. The cutting is all done. The pieces are laid out so that I can find them. The zinc is cut and placed on the lead board.

Now it's time to put the puzzle back together. The pieces all have their place, and it's my job to rebuild the picture.

Sometimes, at this stage, I am overwhelmed. Especially on glass panels that have this many pieces. Especially when the pieces are this long and skinny!

A few days ago, when Sycamore was at this stage, I stopped to pray. I asked God to bless my hands, so that I could make something beautiful that glorifies Him.  And I realized that God is the ultimate at putting the pieces back together!

We mess up our lives repeatedly. We break relationships. We choose destructive paths. The sins of self-reliance and arrogance lead us astray.

And repeatedly, God reaches out to us and picks up the broken pieces of our lives... and puts them back together again. With Love. With Grace.

And God rebuilds our lives into things of beauty which glorify Him above all. I can never be worthy of His Grace... but I pray that He will use me to do His work here and now.

Sycamore will be complete within a week. I will post a final picture and pricing information. It might make a perfect Christmas present for someone you love!

Thanksgiving Habits

It's Thanksgiving month, and I am seeing a lot of posts on Facebook about what people are thankful for. I'm even writing my own post each day, and I think it's great that gratitude is finding a public forum. Being intentionally grateful changes our thought processes, mood, and attitude. It's amazing what the difference can be, just by being conscious of the positive circumstances that we are already in.

This is something I've gotten really good at, for some reason. It's probably because during the darkest days of my life, following my then-husband's arrest for abusing our then preteen daughter, I began to consciously look for good things to think about. Obviously, the big things in my life were not good, so I started noticing the smaller things that I could be positive about. The habit follows me to this day.

Yesterday, I decided to make note of the things that I whisper "Thank You" to God about throughout the day. Probably the silliest one is that I thank God each time I take a load of laundry out... because we now have a lint filter that doesn't cut me if I'm careless.

More meaningful, I thank God each time I step outdoors, for the ability to walk, generally pain-free. I thank God when I am reluctant to get going on my morning walk; it usually changes my attitude about the walk. Instead of bemoaning the need to hike up the hill to the stadium, I find myself thinking of all the wondrous ways in which my body works.

Even more meaningful, I actually thank God for my daughter and my husband each time I fold a piece of their clothing. I try to think of something different to remember with each piece of laundry. This turns laundry from a drudgery to a delight!

As I cook, I try to thank God for each amazing food: the color, the smell, the taste, the nutritional value. I must admit that I frequently fail in this one. I get distracted by the need to "finish" and serve the meal. Surprisingly, cleaning up after the meal is a time when it's easier for me to focus on the good things. I find joy in running water, in having a dishwasher, in the color of the dishes.

In some ways, it seems silly, indeed. But I find myself much more positive, much more pleasant, much more productive when I remember to say thank you to God for the abundant blessings that surround me.

P.S. I am continuing to build these Cross of Light pieces. They are for sale for $40.00, plus shipping and tax. If you would like to order one for yourself or a gift, please contact me via email at agoginglass@yahoo.com

Stormy Weather

We recently traveled to Denver, CO, so my husband could attend a conference. Our daughter and I tagged along (another homeschooling blessing!) and took some field trips to museums and the zoo. It was a great trip!

On the way home, we drove through several mountain ranges and passes. As we approached one range, we noticed some clouds gathering over the mountains...

As we got closer, we could still see the sun... barely. It looked terrible ahead! We knew that with the elevation climb toward the pass, it would likely be a "wintery mix" rather than rain. We hoped that going over the pass could be done safely, and wouldn't take us three hours!

It was definitely a "wintery mix" at first, then turned to purely snow. The road was slippery, and the winds were fierce. The only other vehicle we saw on the pass was a snowplow! Thankfully, it was still daylight through the pass. I'm not sure we could've made it in the dark.

At times, it was a whiteout. The sole reason we continued was that we knew as we went down in altitude, the weather would improve. And it did. By five miles past the pass, we were back to sunshine and clear skies.







As Christians, our life is kind of like our trip through the pass. We can know that stormy weather is ahead; Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:12, "...all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Many times in the Bible, we are assured that we are not free of the tribulations of this life; there will be storms.

Sometimes, we can see these storms on the horizon. Sometimes, they ambush us and take us by surprise. But there will be troubles in this life. A "wintery mix" of pain and anguish will be ours in this life. At times, the whiteout of distress will envelope us, obscuring our view of anything but our immediate situation.

And still...

We can know, yes, truly know, that if we keep traveling the road God has placed in front of us, we will return to clear skies and sunshine. In Romans 8:38-39, we are assured: "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So, when we are traveling in great weather, like my family is right now, we can expect that things will be more difficult sometime down the road. And when we see the storm on the horizon, we can trust that God will sustain us through it. And when we are in the midst of a whiteout, unable to see beyond our grief, we can depend on the love of Jesus to make all things right in the end. We will return to sunshine and clear skies.

Prayer Hands

These hands of mine have cut a lot of glass, folded a lot of laundry, and washed a lot of dishes. Sometimes, I'm struck by how old my hands look. And I know they're not getting any younger.

My favorite stories have my hands in them:

At the end of our very first date, my now-husband asked if we could pray before we parted. I said, "Sure" and reached out to grab his hand. That's just what we do in my family; when we pray, we hold hands. When Brad tells this story, he says his heart melted right then and there.

At our church here on the Jicarilla Apache Nation, people come forward for healing prayer every Sunday. After their anointing, my husband the preacher asks for anyone to come forward and lay hands on those being prayed over. I love the idea of the Holy Spirit working through my hands to touch somone.

Not too long ago, a woman from our congregation came to visit. She, like many here, has much grief in her life. In the past, I might've given her a quick hug as she left, but I was moved by the Holy Spirit to ask her if I could pray with her. She got teary-eyed and grabbed my hand. I put my arms around her and prayed for God to comfort her.

And today, while outside washing The Pastormobile and our personal car, two young women came through the yard. We greeted them, and I watched as they continued walking. Soon, one of the women looked up and saw me. I said something inane, like "beautiful day" and expected them to walk on. Instead, the woman said, "Will you pray with us? My friend was badly hurt in an accident and this is her first time out of the house in months." We gathered, my husband the pastor, our almost-7-year-old, the injured woman, her friend, and me. I reached out to take the hand of the injured woman... and in a short time, there were hands linked all around our little circle. We prayed together for God's healing hand, physically, emotionally, spiritually.

And I looked down at the brown American Indian hand in my left and my husband's pale Anglo hand in my right, and the power of God connecting us all. What grace! What a gift to us.

The hand of God is here in this place, using our hands and our hearts to do His work.

The Pastormobile

My husband's church call came with a car; yes, really! It's a Subaru Forester, which can get out to the remote family burial grounds on the reservation when necessary. It can take the pastor to hospitals (40-130 miles one way), even in the snow. That's all we really thought about when we found out that Brad would have "The Pastormobile," as we've dubbed it.

But in the past couple of weeks, The Pastormobile has provided a unique way for my husband to minister to the community beyond our church congregation. It might not make sense in some settings, but in this place, graciously giving someone a ride home or to a distant location (the town, though small, is very spread out) is ministering. And since my husband has done this a couple of times, he has been asked a few more times.

When a stranger comes to our door in the evening, like this evening, through the grace of God I am able to give them a friendly greeting, not feeling like they are intruding at all. Truly. It's an amazing gift from God, because I wouldn't have felt this way in many situations in the past. Tonight, the woman started to explain that she was trying to bring home her friend from the bar because she'd had too much to drink, but her friend wasn't able to walk home. She asked, "Could the father give us a ride to her house?"

I asked her in, but she stayed outside to care for her friend. Our almost-7-year-old and her overnight guest were quite curious, peeking out the window. My husband fired up The Pastormobile, loaded up the friends and their big dog, and took them home. As they drove off, my daughter's friend asked, "What was wrong with that lady?"

Taking a deep breath, I said, "She drank too much alcohol."

"Oh," came the answer. "When I grow up, I'm not going to drink alcohol." Sigh of relief from me. And our daughter chimed in, "Me, neither."

And so we minister here in Dulce, New Mexico. We give rides home. We refuse to give rides to the bar. And we risk honesty with young children.

And we are so very deeply blessed to be here. We thank God for the opportunity to serve in this way.

Lessons

 Sometimes things just don't go my way! In glass. In teaching. In relationships. In life. These two pictures show examples in glass: broken glass and too-big gaps. Sometimes I can fix these kinds of problems, but sometimes things just can't be fixed...

At least not by me.

And that's where my anger comes in. I think feeling helpless to fix something that's wrong is the fastest way to anger for me. When I see something that's wrong, hurtful, or just messed up, I want to fix it.

And if my efforts to fix it are foiled, I get angry. Oh, it feels righteous enough; after all, I'm trying to do something sooooo right. And my anger flares in irritability, in frustration, in hot snappiness at my loved ones.

What does the Bible say about my anger? Really, I'd rather avoid this. After all, I never hit anyone in my anger... or break anything...

But James 1:20 says "the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." I need to face this.

The Bible is clear about one thing: my anger is sin. In Matthew 5:21-22a, Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment." And in Galatians 5, "fits of anger" are listed as works of the flesh, and in Galatians 5:24 it says, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." (emphasis mine)

Ouch.

It's easier to think of works of the flesh as adultery, murder... you know, things I would never do. I'd rather not look at my anger.

But again the Bible speaks clearly: Colossians 3:1-2, 7-8 tells us, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.... In these you too once walked when you were living with them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth."

And in Ephesians 4:31-32, we are told "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." 

My anger is sin. Plain and simple. Sin.

So how do I get rid of something so entrenched in my personality? Notice that Ephesians didn't stop at telling me to get rid of my anger (and wrath and bitterness...). It informed me what should replace my anger. I need to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving. And in Galatians 5, it goes on to say, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..."

So, my charge is to rid myself of anger...to replace it with kindness, forgiveness, tenderheartedness, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. And I don't have to do this by myself. The Spirit, God's Holy Spirit, is with me always. By seeking God, I have received many of the gifts of the Spirit, and I trust that God isn't done with me yet. "He who began a good work in you (me) will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." (Philippians 1:6)

I'm glad I'm not on my own in this one. I think it's going to take a while...