Still Not Used To It

This tiny woman gave birth to me.  I know. 

It occurred to me today that I've seen more Christmases with this woman than with any other single person in my life.  (Dad left for Home in February 2010.)

Ken and I celebrated a mini Christmas with Mom today in Lakefield where she lives now.  Only the third Christmas of my entire life where an early visit in a very understated few hours actually counts as 'it'.  I don't like it.  I don't like that she moved away and that it takes 3 hours to get there.  I don't like that Christmas is so very different for us now.

But I'm glad she seemed so delighted with her gift - a set of small and delicate porcelain birds, perched on a tree branch.  She loves birds.  I'm glad we could bring a small centerpiece of Christmas greens to decorate her room for the season.  I'm glad we could eat together, even if it was only the 'festive special' at Swiss Chalet.  I'm grateful for the time we have, when we have it.

Just....still getting used to it.

Were I've Been

 מַה־נִּמְלְצ֣וּ לְ֭חִכִּי אִמְרָתֶ֗ךָ מִדְּבַ֥שׁ לְפִֽי׃

 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!      Psalm 119:103

It's been a barest-minimum kind of fall in my blog world, so I just wanted to write something quickly to explain.  Since September 13, exactly four months ago, I have had the excruciating privilege of studying Hebrew, the original text of about two thirds of the writings I hold to as my Scripture.  This is all part of my ongoing academic efforts towards a Masters of Divinity.  Hebrew Exegesis was both the title and intent of the course, and it involved more than just translation, as challenging as that is all on its own.  We dug deep, did word studies, learned to ask interpretive questions and did a pull-it-apart-at-the-seams paper on one specific text.  Today was the final exam

 

I am spent.  This particular run at my schooling included a transfer to Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, an hour and 15 minute commute, on a good day, one way.  I do not like to drive to Toronto.  I actually don't like to drive.   It was hard to give up an entire day during the week for this.  It was brutal doing the work

But even now, right now, as I lay my exhausted self down to sleep, I know a deep sense of gratitude for how this has made me love my Bible more.    Like honey.  Even, and maybe especially, the humility-gift it brings along with it.  There's nothing like digging into the original language and trying to wrap your brain around the author's cultural perspective to make you realize, yet again, just how very little you know about anything.   It's a sweet humility, a gentle dismantling of my soul even as I dismantled each verb and syntax 

I do hope to be able to write a bit more in the next few days before Christmas.  There's so much worship and love to be had in Advent, the beauty of it is unmissable

But that's where I've been. And now to bed