Another Birthday

With June coming to a close, another birthday has come and gone. For some reason, birthdays these days just aren't as exciting as they were earlier in my life. I used to look forward to being the center of attention, the object of celebration for a day. I was always excited about getting presents, and that still is one of the nice things about birthdays, even though my fascination with things isn't what it once was.

But one thing I loved about my birthday back then, about growing older, was that being older meant doing more things, having more privileges. It meant getting to go to school, being old enough to babysit, joining the high school youth group, getting a driver's license, graduating from high school, going to college. I don't think I'm unique in this.You felt that way about getting older at one time too. I guess my question these days is when do we start associating more birthdays with things we can't do? Why do we lose that sense that being older means doing more things, having more to contribute? Why do we start to think that being older means doing fewer things, contributing less, having fewer responsibilities? Do we start going backwards at some point?

The older I get, the more I understand what the psalmist meant when he said that our days are like grass, like flowers that flourish briefly, until the wind blows them down. Life happens fast, and it doesn't last very long. I used to look at my parents or other people when they were the age that I am now and think how old they were. At that age now, I feel like I'm just getting started, and I certainly don't feel old. There's definitely been a physical decline--it's much harder to lose weight now than it was in the past, and there's more that needs to be lost. I just got my first pair of progressive lens glasses because I'm finding it difficult to see things far away and close up. But mentally and emotionally, I feel like I'm better than I've ever been. I have knowledge, work experience, parenting experience--just plain life experience--that makes me a better, more productive, more useful, more confident person than I was back in my twenties. I have more to contribute to family, church, and work.

And that makes it all the more difficult for me to understand why people quit at sixty-five, when they still have so much to offer and so little time to waste. Social security allows them to retire from their jobs, but so many seem to quit everything at that point. And there are still so many needs, so much to do.  My parents "retired," but they moved from Ohio up to Michigan to help me raise Katie and Jonathan when I was a young widow. Henry's eighty-something mom, who still drives and serves as meal coordinator at her church, often goes to nursing homes to visit the old people.

Friends of ours recently told us they've bought a condo in Florida, and they'll be going there this winter, like so many of the other mature couples in our church. They've raised their children, their grandchildren are now grown, and, she told us, they don't feel like they have anything to do. And while we're having this conversation, our VBS coordinators are running around, begging people to sign up to help. The average age of our elders is getting lower and lower because the men with maturity who have finished raising their families and actually now have the time to take up such a demanding office are in Florida six months of the year, not long enough to serve here, and not long enough to serve there. These are the people who, because they aren't working regular jobs, should have time to teach Sunday school, lead Bible studies, visit sick people, and take up any number of services in the church.

On the positive side, though, it's wonderful to see the retired school teacher, now in her eighties, teaching VBS faithfully. I've also been told that, as an "experienced" widow, she shepherds the new widows through dark days, encouraging and sharing with them in their sorrow. She may not be putting in forty-plus hours a week anymore, but she's using her time well.

And that's what God calls us to do, as author David Roper (a mature person who has not retired his wisdom and abilities) reminds us: "As long as we have the light of day, we must work--not to conquer, acquire, accumulate, and retire, but to make visible the invisible Christ, and to touch men and women, boys and girls with His love. If we have done all these things, we will have done all we can do, and we can rest easy" (Teach Us to Number Our Days, Discovery House Publishers).

Stuff I Read This Week: Not using snopes.com or google

I haven't been putting up any "great stuff I read this week" posts for awhile because I've been occupied with editing some great stuff (see Monday's post). But  this post from Stuff Christians Like.net is amusing and thought provoking. It addresses one of Henry's pet peeves, and something we've all done--forward e-mails without verifying that the information is accurate. So this one is for Henry.


Not using snopes.com or google.

Meeting Jesus at the Feasts

"The New is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the New revealed." This little rhyme may be familiar to you (at least the concept should be) if you grew up in a Reformed church and attended catechism. It's reminding us that all of Scripture is one; there is not a huge division between the Old and New Testaments, with the New Testament suddenly being a radical departure from what has preceded it in the Old Testament. Rather, we understand that everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus (hence, it is concealed), and with the coming of Jesus and the fulfillment of prophecies, the meaning of the Old Testament is revealed in the New.

This is the premise for a wonderful new book that will be coming later this summer/early fall from Reformed Fellowship: Meeting Jesus at the Feasts by Dr. John Sittema. I've been spending my evenings since January editing this book for Reformed Fellowship, and it's been one of those great experiences where I learn something new every time I sit down to edit.

Dr. Sittema examines each of the seven Old Testament feasts--Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Firstfruits, Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles--as well as the Sabbath and the Year of Jubilee. He shows how each element of the celebration pointed the Old Testament people to Christ, revealing the gospel, and then shows how Jesus, in the New Testament, fulfills each of these celebrations, which served as types of him and the gospel. One fascinating concept I learned is that through the centuries, the Jews continued to celebrate the feasts that God had established, but they added in their own traditions and ceremonies.When Jesus comes, he condescends and observes and fulfills the feasts as they've come to be celebrated rather than as his Father originally instituted them.

That's just one of the intriguing concepts that struck me as I worked on this book. Here's an example of one of my favorites from the chapter on Passover. Sittema explains that one of the customs that developed through the centuries was the tradition of a lamb for the people. This was an actual lamb without blemish that was tied to a stake so that the people could come by and examine it, ensuring that this was, in fact, an animal without blemish. And how does this reflect Jesus' being our perfect Lamb?

That [Jesus] died, and that his death was physically, psychologically, and spiritually horrific tells only part of the story. When he died completes the tale.

          The timing of the day was rich with meaning. As noted earlier, the lamb for the people had been staked out at 9:00 a.m. At the same time that the high priest was tying off the frisky four-footed beast, Jesus was nailed to the cross on the other side of the wall before the eyes of the watching world. Later in the afternoon, at the traditional time for the slaughter of the “lamb for the people,” the high priest cut its throat, concluding the peace offering with the standard liturgical proclamation, “It is finished.” But, at the very same time, on the other side of the wall, Jesus, the priest presiding over his own sacrifice, also cried out, “It is finished!” and breathed his last (Mark 15:37; Matthew 27:45–50). Jesus did not merely keep the Feast of Passover. He took it over.

Sittema's content is compelling, and his skillful writing style, passion for his topic, and knowledge of the feasts enhance the reading experience. Meeting Jesus at the Feasts will give you a better understanding of the gospel and the relationship between the Old and New Testaments. If you're looking for something that will be thought provoking and edifying for a Bible study (each chapter ends with discussion questions), you'll enjoy this book. You can read the introduction to the book here. And I'll let you know when it's available!

The Next Chapter

I've just completed the first week of the next chapter of my life--at least the next chapter in the part devoted to work and career. Tuesday was my first day as an editor at Reformation Heritage Books, here in Grand Rapids.

I honestly wasn't looking to move on to a new chapter. I was perfectly happy with the Discovery House Publishers chapter. I love the people I worked with, I was working with some amazing authors that I had come to consider friends, and I enjoyed my work. I had just celebrated my fifth anniversary there, and I was looking forward to more. There was probably no one more surprised than I was that I would be moving on.

But even though we don't know anything about it, God has decided long ago the number of pages in each chapter in our lives, and as we turn a page, we're often caught off guard to find that we're at the end of one chapter and heading for the next.

I got my first hint that I was headed for something new back in March when I attended the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology here in Grand Rapids. Henry's organization, Reformed Fellowship, had an exhibit at the conference, and he was representing the organization there. I wandered around, looking at the other publishers' tables, and found myself having a conversation with Dr. Joel Beeke, the founder and president of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary and Reformation Heritage Books. By the time I left his exhibit, he had my business card and had asked me to do an editing sample for him the following week. I walked back to my husband, laughed, and said, "I think he's offering me a job." But then I said quickly, "He's a busy man. He'll forget all about this by Monday."

But he didn't forget. On Monday morning, there was an unedited manuscript, with a request from him to edit the first three brief chapters. After that, I had about a month to think about leaving DHP and moving on to RHB. And every time I thought of a reason to stay put in my nice, comfortable DHP chapter, situations and people (usually Dr. Beeke) kept giving me better reasons to move on to the next one.

And so I did. And I feel a little bit like Huck Finn,who at the end of his trip down the Mississippi, decides to  strike out for the frontier. It was sad to leave behind so many dear coworkers and authors at DHP, and yet I have a calm sense of God's calling. And when God has turned the page, you just know that what's next might be crazy, unsettling, confusing, and wild--like the frontier--but it will be good.