How He Loves

I haven't adored a song this much in...maybe ever. If you'll pardon the cliché, it's so beautiful it hurts.



He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us so.

Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way that...

He loves us
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Well, I thought about You the day Steven died,
And You met me between my breaking.
I know that I still love You, God, despite the agony.
...They want to tell me You're cruel,
But if Stephen could sing, he'd say it's not true, cause...

Cause He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves us.
Whoa! how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves us,
Whoa! how He loves.

Declaration

Mind swirling with a growing list of Things I Must Do, filling our Advent season, our Christmas celebrations, I can't sleep. I want traditions, memories, a Christ-filled season, and suddenly I realize that it has all been superficial. Have I stopped for even one moment to acknowledge His presence here, to welcome Him into our preparations and celebrations?

My heart beats, be still...be still...be still...

He is God.

Do I declare that? Does my life speak to His great mercies, His unfailing love? Does it bring Him glory?

I will, must, declare it. He is God. He is Good. He is merciful. He loves you.

Do I declare all that He has saved me from? By grace alone has He saved me. I am not good. Oh, I am not good. I daren't confess the depths of my sin but to God alone, but know that it is true. I am saved only through faith in Christ, Who has covered my sin, my shame, with His sacrifice, His love, His blood.

Do I declare all that He has done in my life? Those dark years, those low points, I don't speak of them often but why not? Why do I not declare, loudly, He carried me through that! He did. He held me and He carried me and how easy it is to forget, to want to forget, to move on, leave it all in the past. The idea of going back to that place leaves me breathless with terror, but how can I bring hope to others if I do not declare, He brought me through, I am here, alive, safe, filled with joy and peace, on the other side!

Do I declare His good and perfect gifts? His everlasting joy, His peace that passes all understanding. The gift of His Holy Spirit, indwelling - Comforter, Advocate, Guide, Spirit of Truth. The gift of His Son...and that is what this season is all about. Who it is all about.

I am backwards, all backwards, planning and preparing and determined that we will prepare for Him, celebrate Him, but first, first...I must enter in. I must bow down, acknowledge Him amidst all of my plans, quiet my busy spirit and enter in. He is already here. He has always been here. I have been so busy forcing, wrestling, trying to bring Him down into this season, am I doing enough?, will our preparations and celebrations be about Him? but no. He is already here, and I have only to walk quietly into this season and allow Him to prepare me. I cannot force this. My wrestling, my worry, has all been for naught.

He is here. He has come! And he will come again in glory!

Praise be to God!

He is here.

Emmanuel.

God is with us.

Weekend Reading

• Closing up the Birth Box, Becoming the True Princess @ The Real Life Home
• Three Little Words @ To Parent as One who has been Richly Forgiven
• The Myth of the Lukewarm Christian @ Quivering Daughters
• Remembering Jack @ Internet Monk

One Christmas card

I shared a link to (in)courage's Christmas card drive in my Weekend Reading a couple weeks ago. The Christmas card drive ends on Monday, so with only the weekend remaining in which to create that card, I wanted to mention it again.

"I got asked the same question over and over again in a language I couldn’t understand by faces I could read as easily as those of my own two sons, 'Do you know my sponsor? Will you ask them to write to me?'

Sponsor or no sponsor, turns out what every kid really wants is a letter. A letter to tell them they are special and loved and beautiful and necessary and that they matter much, much more than their circumstances may tell them. When you’ve stood in a corrugated iron shack that houses a family of five who barely escaped a mud slide and watched them pull an envelope of letters that stretch back for years out from under the mattress pad you know you’re in the presence of something special."

For only a couple dollars and a few minutes of your time, you can encourage an unsponsored child with a Christmas card, letting them know that Jesus loves them and there are people out there praying for them.

This could be the most important and meaningful Christmas card you send this year.

Snow day

We began our day with plans to go somewhere - anywhere - but quickly changed our minds after looking out the window this morning.



It's not much snow for a northern Manitoba girl, but on the lower west coast of Canada it looks pretty much surreal. And while I'm confident in my snow-driving abilities, I'm not so confident in the same of the locals, nor did I think a mere handful of snow plows and an abundance of steep hills were a great combination for driving.

So in we stayed.

We read books in front of a warm fire, practiced some French, sang songs, and watched the snow falling thick outside. We drank hot chocolate with candy cane stir sticks. And while the boys were occupied with general mess and chaos, I finally finished the older one's months-old request: a baby carrier for his babies.

I first promised this carrier during a walk this summer, when I glanced over to discover that the boy was casually walking down the street with his "baby" (a beanbag animal of some sort) hanging out of his pants. He thought his underwear was a pretty clever baby carrier; I suggested that perhaps it wasn't the most appropriate way to carry his baby while in public. And so he asked me to sew him a baby carrier for his babies, just like I had for his baby brother.

I use a variety of carriers with my babies. With my first, I preferred the versatility and support of a good sturdy wrap. With my second, I find myself most often reaching for my mei tai, choosing speed over the wrap's extra support.  I do still love my wrap, though, especially if I'll be wearing him for long stretches of time.  The baby just had a nice nap on my back in the wrap while at a playdate last week.

Because the boy sees the mei tai used most frequently, that was the style he requested. Months of procrastination later, it is done.

He loves it. The first "baby" he grabbed to put in it was, of all things, a stuffed bat.

 Second was his most favoured "baby", a small beanbag puppy.  He wore the puppy in it all evening, only reluctantly taking it off to eat dinner.

 

When it was time to clean up toys after dinner, he asked if I'd put his beanbag bear in the baby carrier first.  Once his bear was snuggled in place, he said, "This is great!  Now I can clean with my bear!"

This kid's gonna make an awesome daddy someday.

Wordless Wednesday: Ouch

Alternately titled: When You Launch Yourself Head First Off Your Brother's Bed, Try Not to Land on a Stack of Board Books (their corners are sharper than they look!)

You win, TSA

For years, my husband has said he will not travel to the United States.

Too dangerous, he says.

They're not that bad, I counter.

Well, I've been forced to admit that he was right. (Ow. My pride.)

It was bad enough when we suddenly couldn't cross the border without a full passport or enhanced drivers licence. But fine, whatever, we'll stay here and support our own economy. I prefer to support local business anyway. I had plans to get my passport should I ever convince my obviously over-reacting husband to fly anywhere in the States.

But now?

Passport or not, we'll stick to more local vacations or other countries. I would rather not be molested through an "enhanced pat-down" nor seen naked via an advanced imaging technology (AIT) screening just to board a plane in that country. Nor will I teach my children not to allow themselves to be touched, only to turn around and let a stranger grope them in the name of "safety".

Really? Safety? Does anyone honestly believe such security theater will keep them safe?

Is there anything that country won't allow in the name "safety"?

To "ensure your safety", the American government permits:

• mothers to be effectively sexually assaulted
  

  "I stood there, an American citizen, a mom traveling with a baby with special needs formula, sexually assaulted by a government official. I began shaking and felt completely violated, abused and assaulted by the TSA agent. I shook for several hours, and woke up the next day shaking."

• rape survivors to be left in tears after being pat down
  

  "He started at one leg and then ran his hand up to my crotch. He cupped and patted my crotch with his palm. Other flyers were watching this happen to me. At that point I closed my eyes and started praying to the Goddess for strength. He also cupped and then squeezed my breasts. That wasn’t the worst part. He touched my face, he touched my hair, stroking me. That’s when I started crying. It was so intimate, so horrible. I feel like I was being raped. There’s no way I can fly again. I can’t do it."

• a woman to be handcuffed to a chair for asking questions
  

  "The TSA chose Meg McLain for special screening. They wanted her to go through the new porno-scanners. When she opted out, TSA agents raised an enormous ruckus. When she asked some question about what they planned to do to her, they flipped out. TSA agents yelled at her, handcuffed her to a chair, ripped up her ticket, called in 12 local Miami cops and finally escorted her out of the airport. Listen to her story as she told it on radio show Free Talk Live last night."

• cancer survivors to have their prosthesis removed
  

  "Bossi was asked to show her prosthetic breast, sticking her hand down her own shirt and removing the prosthesis from her bra.
  
  A T.S.A. representative says agents aren't supposed to remove any prosthetics, but are allowed to ask to see and touch any passenger's prosthetic."

• a bladder cancer survivor to be left covered in his own urine
  

  "'One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.'
  
  The security officer finished the pat-down, tested the gloves for any trace of explosives and then, Sawyer said, 'He told me I could go. They never apologized. They never offered to help. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened.'

• young children to be subject to enhanced pat-downs
  

  "...the boy went through a metal detector and didn't set it off but was selected for a pat down. The boy was shy so the TSA couldn't complete the full pat on the young boy. The father tried several times to just hold the boys arms out for the TSA agent but i guess it didn't end up being enough for the guy. I was about 30 ft away so i couldn't hear their conversation if there was any. The enraged father pulled his son shirt off and gave it to the TSA agent to search..."

• a three year old girl to be patted down while screaming "don't touch me!"
  

  "Why was Mandy searched in the first place? She started crying when she was asked to put her teddy bear through the X-ray machine. This made it difficult for her to walk calmly through the metal detector and she set the machine off twice, which meant she must be hand-searched.

• a heavily armed soldier to have his nail clippers confiscated
  

  Soldier: [touches butt stock of the rifle] But this actually is a weapon. And I'm allowed to take it on.

• the TSA to deliberately make the enhanced pat-downs humiliating and intrusive in order to coerce passengers to use the ATI scanners, effectively punishing those who opt-out of the scanners
  

  "I asked him if he was looking forward to conducting the full-on pat-downs. 'Nobody's going to do it,' he said, 'once they find out that we're going to do...We're trying to get everyone into the machine.'"

• the TSA to detain those who refuse to undergo screening
  

  "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning that any would-be commercial airline passenger who enters an airport checkpoint and then refuses to undergo the method of inspection designated by TSA will not be allowed to fly and also will not be permitted to simply leave the airport.
  
  That person will have to remain on the premises to be questioned by the TSA and possibly by local law enforcement. Anyone refusing faces fines up to $11,000 and possible arrest."

• the TSA to lie about what the images look like and whether these images can be saved or transmitted

...all for the illusion of safety.

Many are concerned about the exposure to radiation. I appreciated this quote from a physics professor:

Peter Rez, a physics professor at Arizona State University in Tempe, did his own calculations and found the exposure to be about one-fiftieth to one-hundredth the amount of a standard chest X-ray. He calculated the risk of getting cancer from a single scan at about 1 in 30 million, "which puts it somewhat less than being killed by being struck by lightning in any one year," he told me.

While the risk of getting a fatal cancer from the screening is minuscule, it's about equal to the probability that an airplane will get blown up by a terrorist, he added. "So my view is there is not a case to be made for deploying them to prevent such a low probability event."

Airports have other options, including opting out of the TSA program in favor of private screeners. Not everyone is willing to stand for this. Many travelers are choosing to "opt out" of ATI scans tomorrow, designated National Opt Out Day. Asserting that the new policies are unconstitutional, a man was able to avoid both the AIT scanning and the enhanced pat-down when returning the the US this weekend.

But then, of course, there's always the chance the TSA will threaten you with a civil suit and a $10,000 fine if you attempt to leave the airport rather than submit to either procedure, as they did to John Tyner.

I enjoyed this summary of the issue:

"The ultimate idiocy is the full-body screening of the pilot. The pilot doesn't need a bomb or box cutter to bring down a plane. All he has to do is drive it into the water, like the EgyptAir pilot who crashed his plane off Nantucket while intoning "I rely on God," killing all on board.

But we must not bring that up. We pretend that we go through this nonsense as a small price paid to ensure the safety of air travel. Rubbish. This has nothing to do with safety - 95 percent of these inspections, searches, shoe removals and pat-downs are ridiculously unnecessary. The only reason we continue to do this is that people are too cowed to even question the absurd taboo against profiling - when the profile of the airline attacker is narrow, concrete, uniquely definable and universally known. So instead of seeking out terrorists, we seek out tubes of gel in stroller pouches."

America, land of the...free?

I'll stay right here in Canada, thanks.