Celebrating with Grandchildren!

One of the great delights of getting older in a family is the development of the new generation. Val and I sit back and enjoy seeing our six grandchildren growing and developing. Perhaps the biggest thrill is to see the birth of a new child into our extended family. We watched from the sidelines as Eliana Mercy Jane Boan arrived to be a little sister for Isaac and a delightful 8 pound baby daughter for Sarah-Jane and Justin.

Eliana made her arrival around 10 am on Monday 31st March and very soon after was being admired by two doting grandparents. She is a beautiful baby and while they are all beautiful, Eliana is more lovely than most! (There is a little bias in this statement!)

As I sat and held this little 2 hour old child, I looked at her long girl fingers and the features of her small face and saw a person, "...fearfully and wonderfully made..." with the minute organs of her body ticking away as they would throughout her entire life. I saw her hands grip the blanket that held her and remembered the intricate engineering that would be needed to replicate this action. But Eliana was more than just a physical miracle. I pondered what contribution this dear little person would make to the world in which she lives. I wondered how she would grow to know her heavenly Father. I wondered what joy and what sorrow would be her experience.

As I sat there holding this dear little babe, I asked Father to bless her to know Him, and with all her latent potential, that she might do what He desired of her and know his love and wholeness.

NOW this post is headed 'grandchildren' and the other exciting thing that happened in the same week was our oldest grandchild, Josiah, who having just turned 17 and passed his 'Learner Driver' test came by in his red Toyota Corolla motorcar. Another beginning. His father, Nathanael, sitting alongside and feeling the same nervousness that I had known years before when I had sat beside him in a similar situation. Josiah reversed out of our driveway and stopped to greet a friend then let out the clutch and drove away.

I wondered about the future for Josiah too. What would this new step in his life open for him? As he drive out of my sight, I asked Father to continue to guide this wonderful young man to know him in such a way that he might choose to be the person that God wanted him to be.

It has been one third of a year since we BLOGGED!

I can hardly believe that anyone will look at this blog as we have been quiet for so long! The days have rushed past and have been full. I (Kevin) have endured six weeks where an arthritic pain in my shoulder required some medical treatment and then twelve weeks of Physiotherapy. We have been learning in practice to '...be still and know that I am God...'

Time to be still has also been time to read and reflect. It was really encouraging to read the book, "Pagan Christianity" by Frank Viola and George Barna. The book explores a historical View of God's Church. It highlights places where men and women have seen things that God has revealed and then allowed their fingerprints to obscure the revelation of God with the ideas of humankind.

"Pagan Christianity" exposes the mistakes we have made as God's People through out the last 2000 years and explains that the Biblical material suggests that the
shape of the Church is best described as

"A grassroots experience that is marked by a face-to-face community, every-member functioning, open-participatory meetings, non-hierarchical leadership, and the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ as the functional leader and head of the group. Put another way, organic Church life is the "experience" of the body of Christ."

In answer to the question, "what are the signs of a healthy church?", Viola and Barna state:

"some of the signs of a healthy organic Church are:

• the building together of sisters and brothers into close-knit, Christ-centred community.
• the transformation of character in the lives of the members.
  
• meetings that express and reveal Jesus Christ, and in which every member functions and shares.
  
• community life that is vibrant, thriving, authentic and where members grow to love one another, more and more
• a community of believers who are magnificently obsessed with their Lord,
  and are neither legalistic nor libertine in their lifestyle

The authors highlight how we have moved ahead, as God's Church, with our eyes fixed clearly, on the past and often built on the places where grotty human hands have disturbed our view of the things God says will grow within his church. Others have written on this theme before, but the footnotes of each page make this book a great resource for all we who have been called In to Fathers family

If you'd like to see more of "Pagan Christianity" or read chapter one, check the website.