Opinion

  It was simply a lovely and typical spring day in Iroquois last week. A brisk snow was falling. The sand trucks and plows  were already on the road.  Ice rain was due to start […]

  It’s been said the Inuit have at least 12 different words to describe snow. I used 40 different words to describe snow less than 10 minutes after I started shovelling it the other day!  […]

All families have secrets that children instinctively know are not to be revealed. And this is the story of just how one secret was born.  Parents can be forgiven for taking whatever measures necessary to […]

  Invite Him, He will come The summer is here and many are traveling and taking time to be with family and friends. It’s nice to have some warm weather, and be able to enjoy […]

  There is a well-known story about Peter trying to join Jesus out on the water of the Sea of Galilee. (see Matthew 14:22-33).  Recently I noticed something in that story that I never saw […]

Just when I thought I had something to teach her….

By the beginning of this year we (as a family) received a very special gift; a baby girl we named Michelle. By all means, she is a God-sent beautiful present to all of us.

We already have two girls 10 and 13 years old. So, it has been a while since we’ve last been involved with tiny one-piece outfits, diapers, formulas…the whole nine yards. In the last three years we were more into books, sports equipment, fashion accessories and electronics. Lucky us, we have the two worlds under one roof now… 

Michelle is almost five months old today. It’s the time when she can sit upright for longer periods of time, try to roll over from her back to her tummy, make more voices and pull objects (or hair – not mine) closer and pick them up in the palm of her hand then move them from one hand to the other. But more importantly, she is more alert and interactive now. It’s an amazing thing to watch her grow every day.

As I did with her two older sisters, by this time I start to investigate some objects and behaviours that can encourage her sensual, mental & emotional development and help build her focus and attention span. Always believed that the earlier and more intentional parents are about their children’s growth, the better abilities they accumulate. In this time and age, they have lots to learn even before they are teenagers. 

Last evening, after a dear dark-skin friend paid us a visit, my oldest girl asked if Michelle is able to tell the difference between dark and light skin people.

I was quick and nervous with my answer: “she can tell the difference in color, but this is the only difference she makes.” 

Suddenly, it felt like she is advantaged with the many things she doesn’t know compared to adults. The question made me think if a little baby like mine has something to teach us. It made me consider how informative babies and little children’s ignorance can be to our culture. 

Babies could see color from birth. When they are five months old, babies can distinguish between similar bold colors, though they would have difficulty distinguishing similar tones, such as red and orange. Lots has been written about baby’s sensory development and we can always learn more about it from different sources. 

But, there is another set of questions about color that are not as easy to answer. For example: Why for decades we read into different skin color more than we’re supposed to read? How did we learn that? How come it stayed with us for a long time before it was challenged? 

In fact, the color issue triggered all kinds of things that we would have been better off had we not learned them.

As adults, money has a central place in our life. Babies don’t believe that life’s biggest issue is money or how much we have of it.

Babies don’t judge people by the way they dress, look or talk; how come we try to fit people in one of the categories we have in our minds seconds after we first meet them?

Little babies are dependant creatures (some people believe this is the very first thing babies are aware of). This is why it’s very soothing for a baby to touch his /her mother’s skin. Dependency is a very early experience in our life, and a late one as well (we are dependent again when we’re seniors. 

Who could convince us otherwise in between? How could we forget this early lesson?      

Thankfully, for babies, beauty has nothing to do with waist size. If not so, feeding time could have been even more difficult. And it has also nothing to do with the way our faces look.

Babies smile at their moms when they wake up in the middle of the night with no makeup and with tiered eyes. They love their smell without any deodorant or perfume. Why did we let commercial standards define beauty for us?      

As adults, we need to put different hats per day to achieve our tasks and duties. Sometimes we become so good at it that role playing can make us put on masks and not only hats. The end result can be that we will need a historian to rediscover the “original us”.

Transparency is innate to babies. They might not be able to tell you what they want, but they definitely depend on being who they are to let you know what they need so you can help them.

Why did environment conquer some of our innate qualities? Why do we still allow it to do so?

In fact, so many questions come to mind. At the end of the day you start to wonder if we need to teach new born babies and little children what we know, or we need to take a step in their direction and start the process of unlearning many things that we have picked up along our trip in this life.

I can’t help it at this point not to remember an old teacher who used to say to his disciples: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3 (NIV) 

All this happened just when I thought I had something to teach her….

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A Lesson From My Horse

Over the years, I have learned many life lessons from my horse, specifically in the area of relationships. I have learned trust, communication, respect, teamwork, patience, and many other valuable character traits.

I realize this might sound a bit odd, and maybe even crazy, to those who aren’t familiar with horses but let me explain. 

In a herd of horses, there is always a pecking order. The boss is always the dominate one and the rest follow his/her lead. 

Once the pecking order is established, the horse at the top only needs to pin his ears against his neck and the others back off without a fight. They have their way of communicating with each other. 

It is helpful to understand and use their language as much as possible when working with them. When I am walking towards my horse in the field, if I approach her head, chances are that she will walk away from me but if I approach her shoulder, she will probably stand still. 

In both cases I am approaching her and both seem to be a reasonable option, but I get a different response to each one. 

The same is true in human relationships. You can say the same thing in a million different ways using different words, body language and tone of voice and get different responses. 

How you approach a conversation will often determine the response you get from a person even before they say anything. If you are blaming or accusing someone, their response will probably be defensive but if you are looking for understanding, the response will likely bring clarity. 

Your approach and even your responses are key in effective communication. Proverbs 15:1 (MSG) states it so well, “A gentle response defuses anger, but a sharp tongue kindles a temper-fire.”

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A Farewell Perspective

We’ll be driving down the Trans-Canada soon on our way to serve a church in B.C. As we go, we’ll be taking tons of great memories with us; actually we’ll be taking lots of South Dundas with us.

From the moment we arrived here late one February evening, we knew we were in a special place. Not only had our good church people cleaned the house we bought from top to bottom, but they’d unpacked the moving van, set up all our furniture, and even made the beds for our family of four!

 Since that day, we have been touched by how friendly and neighbourly the people of this community are. Like the time my neighbour across the street let me run over a hundred feet of my extension chords from his generator to my sump pump in a power outage. Or the time one half of my maple tree split away and came crashing down while we were on vacation, and I came home to only a few small branches. All the rest was cut up and taken care of by another dear neighbour.

Mostly we’ve just appreciated all the good ‘salt of the earth’ type people we’ve rubbed shoulders with here. Like at South Dundas Soccer or at my Tuesday night hockey. Or the many business owners and trades people who we’ve dealt with. Just good people. People who will be hard to replace, like a carpenter who consistently goes the second mile, or a plumber whose service is amazing, or a mechanic who just treats you right.

South Dundas’ greatest asset is its people, but there’s so much more that we’ve enjoyed like its beauty, history, and of course the St. Lawrence. I don’t think we realize how unique it is to have so many beaches, parks, and access points along the river. I have spent countless hours up our road at Duncan Park. It’s a gem.

It will be difficult to say good-bye as we end our ministry here at the end of May. I’ve been blessed to serve a wonderful church. My wife has enjoyed (usually) driving a school bus for most of our time here. Our children attended the first 12 years of their schooling here and have made some super friends.

So hopefully you can see why I say that we’ll be taking much more with us down the highway than just our stuff. We’ll be taking something of this community. And as we move on I hope that we also leave something behind. More than just the stuff we’ve given away. I hope that we’ve had an impact. 

It’s my hope that some of us have come to see their need to know God’s love and the salvation that’s available in Jesus. Nothing would thrill me more than that we’ve left behind people who have come to know Jesus or have grown closer to him. 

Whether it was through the Perspectives articles that I’ve written, the work done with Love South Dundas or my work through Community Christian Reformed Church, when all is said and done, nothing matters more in life and for eternity than that we come to receive Christ as our Saviour and Lord.

Thanks for being a fantastic community to live in these past 14 years. Thanks for being part of our lives and thanks for letting us be part of yours.

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This is a very significant week in the life of the church. Palm or Passion Sunday received its contrasting names from the day’s Gospel-Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem leads to his passion and crucifixion.

Maundy Thursday gets its name from Jesus’ “new commandment” to “love one another” spoken at his Last Supper where he washed the disciples’ feet.

Good Friday marks Jesus’ trial, crucifixion, and death. Easter Vigil is celebrated on Holy Saturday evening after sundown, prior to Easter Sunday.

Historically, it can be a time for baptizing and receiving new members and celebrating the Lord’s Supper.

Easter Sunday is celebrated with joy. The message “He is Risen Indeed” turns the events of Holy Week and the story of our own lives into a victory. This day initiates the Easter season’s 50 days.

In these days, we are called to draw closer to God and to one another. We have the assurance that Jesus lived, died and rose again–and can give meaning to our often empty lives. 

Good Friday is a dark day. Good Friday is a reminder of our inconstancies, our lack of courage under fire, our willingness to join the crowd rather than stand by our convictions and our friends. It is an accusing finger condemning our weaknesses.

Easter, however, just two days later, is the revelation of the pure love of God for all people. It is the death of fear, the end of despair, the awakening of belief in the goodness of God in spite of the evil of human beings.

May we remember that Holy Week is a precious time, revealing to us once again how very much our Christ loves us.

The resurrection of Jesus lit a flame in the hearts of men and women which has never been extinguished.

It confirms forever the teachings of the man from Nazareth who said, “Because I live, you shall live also. I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”

We are so blessed for Jesus promises us hope, peace, joy, love, light and eternal life in His arms. Our Saviour can bring glory out of darkness and resurrection out of death. And in a few days Jesus will be Risen, He will be Risen Indeed.”

May all of you be touched by the poignancy of Jesus’ death and by the celebration of Easter.

Give thanks for family and friends and count your other blessings.

And know that Jesus cherished us enough to lay His life down for us. We can rejoice always–for we are the precious sons and daughters of the living Lord.

Happy Easter, Happy Spring! 

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