Living History

Call it nostalgia, wistfulness or simply appreciation for the past – living history sites have always fascinated me.

 When we were raising our children in New England, we made frequent trips back to the early 17^th century (Plymouth Plantation) and the 19^th (Sturbridge Village.) We even made it to the 18^th a time or two when we visited our niece who put herself through William and Mary while working as a costumed interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg.

So when our daughter Amber visited us just before Christmas this year, we took advantage of a snowy Saturday morning to visit to one of the treasures of DuPage County: Kline Creek Farm, a living history farm dating to the 1890s that is just minutes away in West Chicago.

Amber, Mom Wallem and I arrived just as the first farmhouse tour of the day was scheduled to begin, and a friendly volunteer offered to lock up the gift shop and run us up to the house in a golf cart. OK, so that part wasn’t exactly period, but courtesy is welcome whatever century you find yourself in. Wayne offered a cheerful commentary on the history of the farm as we rattled over Kline Creek to the farmstead and waved to the helpers who passed us in a horse-drawn sleigh.

“They’re getting the team ready for the biggest job they’ll have this winter,” he explained, “cutting blocks of ice from the pond to store in the icehouse. We’ll have ice for storage until August!”

Inside the house, another volunteer dressed in the homespun layers of a 19^th century farm wife took us through the restored farmhouse, pointing out the original cook stove, the dining room set with period oyster plates for dinner guests, and the parlor complete with a candle-tipped evergreen Christmas tree – a tradition that didn’t catch on in the United States until after Queen Victoria introduced it in Great Britain.

As we moved through the rooms, Mom and I enjoyed comparing farm life in the 1890s so what we experienced sixty years later. We had a lot more conveniences, but Mom and Dad worked just as hard as their 19^th century forebears. And Amber and I discussed a movie she had recently seen, Midnight in Paris, in which the protagonist longs to live in the past. After he is mysteriously transported to Paris in the 1920s, though, he discovers that the writers and artists he meets yearn to live in an earlier era themselves.

So it got me to wondering. Yearning for a seemingly simpler time in history is not unusual. Many of us of a certain age wax wistful about earlier decades when life didn’t move at the breakneck speed it does now. Living history farms such as Kline Creek teach us about the past, but they don’t instruct us how to live in the present. We have to learn that for ourselves.

And here’s the funny thing…we are all “living history.” The choices you and I make every day affect far more people than we realize. Our own families, yes, but also those with whom we share an office, a neighborhood or a church pew.

I wrote a series of theology papers this fall for my OT class based on the book of Ruth, an ordinary woman who became part of the lineage of King David and ultimately Jesus Christ. As I studied Ruth’s life, I was challenged by her example. Whose ancestor might I be one day? What legacy will I leave? How can I “outlive my life” to be a blessing to future generations?

It’s a big question I’m pondering as another year ends. I am living history; you are, too. This coming Sunday, a new chapter begins in each of our biographies. Let’s make it  a real page-turner!

On Tests and Being Tested

It happened again the other night. At the graduation recognition ceremony for our friend Liz, a sound technician stepped to the auditorium microphone just moments before the program began. He cleared his throat. “Testing!” he said quietly into the mic. “1…2…3…testing!”

It’s awkward to test equipment with several hundred people looking on, but it has to be done. And taking tests aren’t exactly a barrel of fun either.

Earlier this evening I completed a two-hour final exam for my grad class – the first academic test I have taken in over 35 years. All day long I felt a frisson of anxiety running up my spine, so annoying that if my fear had been a person I would have slapped it. 58 years old and I’ve got test-taking anxiety all over again? Sheesh…gimme a break. Anyone old enough to read this post knows what real tests in life are like, and they are infinitely harder than the six essay questions I was handed this evening. You can’t study for them either.

But you can prepare.

So many people beloved to us are facing real tests as this year ends – trials of the hardest kind. Several couples we know are estranged or have children facing divorce. More than a few close friends are urgently seeking employment, and the wait is lengthening from months into years. A couple in our church family lost their college-age son, their only child, just last week.

As one friend quietly said when he heard this last news: “There are no words. This is an unspeakable loss.”

So how do we prepare for the real tests of life? I guess it’s a little like what I did to get ready for my exam this evening. You review what you’ve learned in the past. You focus on the needs of the present. You lean into the faith that sustains you.

And you reach out to take hold of the hands waiting to grasp yours.

“Holding,” writes Karen Mains in Comforting One Another, “is one of the primary works of the church. We must learn how to hold one another well, with mercy, because in doing this work, we do the work of God in the world. We hold when we take people into our embrace. We hold when we take people into our hearts. We hold when we take them into our schedules, our lives, our homes. We hold when we keep vigil with them in deathwatches. We hold when we take them into our prayers.”

Who needs you to hold them this Advent season? “Your care for others,” Jesus said in Luke 9:48, “is the measure of your greatness.”

Doing great things for God is not about positions and possessions and paychecks. It is about protecting those who are hurting, hastening to surround them with a protective screen of prayer and provision. The word protect comes from the Latin pro (before) + tegere (to cover) – meaning to cover someone before they can be further harmed.

If you’re not in a time of testing right now – glory hallelujah. Celebrate like I did when I turned in my exam this evening. But don’t forget to look around you for those who are still being tested. Reach out a hand and pull them into your heart, your life, maybe even your home.

At the very least, pull them into your prayers.

GUEST BLOG: Gifts for Those Who Have (Almost) Everything

Note from Maggie: I’m studying for finals so no new blogpost this week, but I thought you’d appreciate this great post from  Janet Denison, who blogs at http://www.janetdenison.com/blog/.   Enjoy!

“I am glad you are reading this blog, in spite of the fact that it was probably hidden between 47 other e-mails from every department store and catalog company in the United States and beyond.  I open my e-mail account with fear and trepidation these days half expecting to see the number unread to exceed 100.  I am amazed at the items that can be purchased during the holiday season.  Who buys this stuff and to whom do they plan to give it?  Surely they can’t consider Sudoku toilet paper to be an appropriate gift!

I ran across one website that is entirely devoted to things which can be described as “unusual” gifts.  I would give you the name except there was just too much stuff that would be considered in “poor taste” – at the very least!

Having perused the bonanza of possible gifts I have made a list of all of the things that I don’t want to find in my stocking or under the tree.  They are as follows:  A) A bacon ornament. Does it just look like a piece of bacon or is there a “fragrance” as well.  (Imagine what a dog would do to the Christmas tree!)  B) Egg Nog soap.  I guess that is supposed to evoke a holiday spirit!  C) A yodeling pickle.  And it’s probably not LeAnn Rimes doing the yodeling.  D) A Monkey Nail Dryer – this was actually kind of clever.  The monkey blows air on your wet nail polish.  The problem is you actually have to stand in front of that monkey trying not to feel too foolish as your family walks by.  Actually, it would probably fit into our family dynamic.  E) A motorized ice cream cone.  Instructions:  Drive through the line at DQ and purchase a soft serve cone.  Insert said cone into this contraption.  Then you hit the “on switch” and just hold your tongue out because the machine turns the cone for you.  I’m not sure if the sin for this would be gluttony or sloth.  I guess it depends on whether you purchase the large, medium or small cone.  F) I would not like either of the following action figures: Marie Antoinette (her head shoots off the top of her body) or the Lunch Lady (she comes with the standard lunch tray and school cafeteria counter).   G) The word search shower curtain.  We have a serious water shortage here in Texas.  H) And because I am somewhat sensitive about my culinary abilities…I don’t want the inflatable fruitcake or turkey.  (I can almost hear the comments on the similarities in flavor…)

Now that you have received the LONG list of what I don’t want…here is what I would like.  A) For all of you to find those who don’t have enough this Christmas, and give them something they need.  B) For all of you to encounter the baby of Christmas who is now seated at the right hand of God…and truly worship him.  C) I would like for every Christian to speak up when you are wished a happy holiday and say, “It is happy…it’s Christmas!”  D) And finally, I would like for all of you to pass along this blog…so I can introduce people to my Lord, the Christ of Christmas.  Have a blessed day!”

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