Toys

If you have a pulse, you're probably aware of the variety of toys out there: iPhones, iPods (and the iPod Touch), and now the ridiculously named iPad. (I like Henry's name for all of these--iPoofs.) And those are just the toys that Apple brings to us. My son still is often attached to his Nintendo DS, and when Katie's boyfriend is waiting for her to get ready (often the case), rather than making awkward conversation with the parents or just sitting around uncomfortably not knowing what to do, he pulls out his phone and starts playing games.

So whatever did we do back in the day--before joy was only a start button away? However did parents who had to wait with small children keep them quiet in those pre-pocket computer days?

Someday a children's history book in its section on culture and society will attempt to describe the toys children of the twentieth century played with, those poor, backward souls who knew nothing of pocket-sized electronics, those who thought that color television was an amazing development in entertainment technology and couldn't think of anything that could be better. Here's what it will say:

Children in the mid-twentieth century knew nothing of handheld electronic devices. In fact, none of them even had personal computers in their homes yet--they hadn't been invented! Most of the toys they played with back then cost less than ten dollars, but they didn't come with any apps. It was a challenge for them to find fun things to do because they had to do more than turn on a start button, and yet they managed, like children of any time, to play games and have fun.

Girls especially enjoyed playing a game called jacks, in which they tossed small metal objects on the ground and attempted to pick them up while bouncing a small rubber ball. Sometimes a group of them would get together and stretch out a long rope, and with one girl standing on each end, they would swing it while another player would stand in the middle and jump. Sometimes they would sing a song or recite a fun chant while they were jumping.

Children would play games like you do now, but they actually had boards that they would put on a table or floor. There would be cards they would hold in their hands and plastic pieces that they would move around the board, depending on the game they were playing. Games often involved small cube-shaped things called die that players would throw to find out how many spaces they could move on the board. Another game involved gathering a number of sticks together and then letting them randomly fall. Players would take turns attempting to pick one up at a time without touching any of the others.

There were small pocket toys that they could carry with them, but they weren't electronic at all. They had a cardboard back and a plastic cover on top. Inside were small holes and  small silver beads. Children would move the game around, trying to make the beads stay put in the holes.

And children of this era did have television. But they had only a few channels--two or three at the most. And cartoons were on only on Saturday mornings and for a short time after school.

Sometimes children during this era were expected just to sit quietly, with absolutely no entertainment at all. These were stringent times for children.

Despite these entertainment challenges, children of the mid-twentieth century managed to grow up and become productive members of society. In fact, some of them learned that life couldn't be constant, 24/7 entertainment. Sometimes they did chores, went to school, did homework, and, yes, sometimes they did sit quietly.

How great the technological advances since then! No children today ever have to be without amusement or entertainment--even for a few seconds--like the poor children of the mid-twentieth century.








 

Shameless Plugs

Here are, admittedly, a couple of shameless plugs for two very creative, entrepreneurial ladies. The first is Miss Katie Selden, my very own red-headed daughter, who has just created a new website for her photography business. Katie has had a passion for photography for several years now, and even though she's all grown up and in college now, majoring in a sensible degree like Humanities with an English emphasis, she ultimately wants to be a photographer. (You'll have to ask her to explain, and you can probably do that if you go to her website or contact her on Facebook.) She's accepting appointments for prom photographs now, and she's even come up with her own idea, a take-off on the weirdly popular trash-the-wedding-dress concept: trash the prom dress. Be the first of your friends to have a trash-the-prom-dress portrait, but don't tell your mom!

My other plug is for an author that I've enjoyed working with on two book projects, Christy Bower. Christy's second book, Best Friends with God, which I edited, will be releasing soon, and Christy is planning a pre-release book party this Friday, April 9, at her blog and on Facebook. You can interact with her, and she even has a contest going to win a signed copy of her new book. Get the details on when/how to enter her contest and join the party at her blog. Christy is a great person and an excellent author--both my experiences working with her have been a lot of fun. So pay her a visit, and win a free book!

Needing the Resurrection

One of the blogs I read this week asked its contributors to write, in a hundred words or less, why they need the resurrection. It sounded like a great writing/thinking exercise, so here’s my attempt:


Like Eve, I want the things I cannot have. And like Sarah, I sometimes doubt the promises of God’s Word. I often speak without thinking and say offensive things, like Peter. I grow impatient with others like Martha. And like Mary, I’ve stood by the side of loved ones as they’ve died. I’m one of the “none righteous” that Paul writes about. So I need to be made alive like Christ, raised up with him, so that I can bear the image of the man of heaven, so that I can have the victory—with him. I need the resurrection.

A blessed Resurrection Sunday to all! May you know your own need for Christ's resurrection--and know that that need has been overwhelmingly and powerfully met.

Imperfect Praise

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! ~Luke 2:23
 
Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest! ~Luke 19:38
 
These two verses from the book of Luke frame Jesus' earthly life. The first, of course, was the song of the angels as they announced the birth of the Messiah. The second comes from an incident a week before Jesus' death as the people praise their Messiah as he enters Jerusalem riding on a colt.
 
This second passage from Luke 19 was our pastor's Palm Sunday text. If you've ever been in church (or anyplace there was some instruction) and a lightbulb suddenly came on as things fell into place for you, then you know what I was experiencing yesterday morning as Pastor Vos opened this text to us.
 
It's interesting how similar both these praise verses are--coming at the beginning and end of Jesus' life. But there is an important difference. In the first, God--through the angels--announces the birth of his son and declares that there is peace on earth. In the second verse, the people get things--as our pastor explained--upside down.
 
The people knew their Bible, he explained. They were aware of the prophecies regarding the Messiah. So when Jesus came riding into Jerusalem from the east, on a colt, they were excited. Here was salvation! They thought that within a week, the Romans would be cast out, and Jesus would be on the throne. Their nation would be restored to them, and they would no longer be slaves to Rome. In their excitement, they declared peace in heaven--upside down and imperfect praise, for only God, from heaven, can declare peace on earth.
 
And yet Jesus accepts their imperfect, upside-down praise. In their ignorant arrogance, they were offering their praise for the wrong kind of Messiah, for a Messiah who would have delivered far less than they really needed. So how could he accept this praise? The same way he accepts our imperfect praise today--he atoned for it on the cross the next week.
 
And in the next verse, Luke 19:41, our Lord weeps for the city that does not know the things that make for its peace.

Take Time to Be Holy?

Take time to be holy, speak oft with thy Lord;


Abide in Him always, and feed on His Word.


Make friends of God’s children, help those who are weak,


Forgetting in nothing His blessing to seek.

~William Dunn Longstreet

It's time to revisit  my short-lived yet popular (with at least two or three people) series: "Not So Great Hymns of the Faith," in which I question how it is that Reformed people are able to suspend everything they've ever learned in catechism classes and heard in sermons about their confessions to sing silly hymns with bad theology and cloying tunes that date from the late 1800s. If you want to review the previous posts in the series, you can find them here.

I was recently struck by the silliness of the above hymn when we sang it during song service at our church. (Song service is a somewhat strange tradition to me since I didn't grow up Reformed. No one quite knows its purpose. In our area United Reformed churches, song service occurs for about ten minutes before the actual service begins, and the congregation sings songs from a songbook other than the Psalter Hymnal that we use for worship. It's kind of a hymn free-for-all.) I've probably sung this hymn hundreds of times in the past, but this time I realized how bizarre it actually is. Take time to be holy? I visualized my Google calendar, trying to find an hour here or there between dentist appointments, haircuts, meetings at work, and Bible studies to squeeze in some  holiness.

Of course holiness is to characterize our entire Christian walk--it's not something we take time to do as if there were starts and stops. Calvin says, "Of the many excellent recommendations, is there any better than the key principle: Be thou holy, for I am holy?" He reminds us that holiness means full obedience to Christ, and our holiness should lead us to "exhibit the character of Christ in our lives, for what can be more effective than this one stirring consideration?" Holiness, then, is not something to make time for; it is what we are to exhibit every waking moment of our lives.

While the hymnwriter encourages us to engage in the activities of someone who wants to live a life of holiness, it feels like he may have missed this point about holiness that Calvin makes: "Holiness is not a merit by which we can obtain communion with God, but a gift of Christ, which enables us to cling to him, and to follow him."

With its focus on our activities rather than God's greatness, this messy hymn has strange lyrics that definitely place it in the category of a not so great hymn of the faith. And if you want to read something really good on the theological ideas that have shaped so many of the not-so-great hymns of the faith, read Michael Horton's article in this month's Outlook.