A Creative God

A couple weeks ago or so, one of my cousins got married in Spokane, Washington. Since all the Aunts, Uncle and Cousins came out for the first Smucker cousin wedding, we had a reunion too, but that was up in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and it was afterwards.

While we were there, the fuel pump on our truck went out, so we got to stay an extra day with my uncle's family up there. I decided to have a mini-adventure, and went to school with my younger cousins.

It wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought it'd be.

Anyway, (I'm actually approaching my point here!)

The high school teacher gave a mini-lecture on writing, which fired me up. I grabbed my cousin's notebook and a pencil and started scribbling. And when I reread it, I thought, "Ya know, this could be a blog post!"

And then our truck got fixed and we went home the next day and I left it behind!

Fortunately, I have an awesome Aunt Twila, who mailed a couple of ratty notebook papers to me with a little note on the envelope saying that these were "good words". Now they are in my hand, so I can type them up and you can read them, if you want.

Spiritual gifts fascinate me. They're a sort of Heavenly psychology- instead of personality types and traits, they're these divinely - appointed abilities, custom - fit to each of god's dear ones.  Each of us has a unique place, a unique combination of supernatural characteristics that give us a specific spot in God's story. It's awesome! 

But, I think even more interestingly, each gift represents an aspect of God's character. My gift of mercy can help me see people through God's eyes, while someone else's gift of knowledge can give them a much clearer view of truth than I may ever have. That's why church is so important- none of us can fully represent God's character alone. We're too small. But with all of us standing together and operating in our understanding of God's individual traits, we can better represent Him as a whole.

To be honest, this gets me kind of hyped up. There's something about realizing what a small part you play, but that it's intrinsic to a much larger whole. And by "larger" I mean intergalactic. Because our God's that big.

Moving on, though, (because I can't think of a better transition) one of God's traits that absolutely intrigues me is His creativity. The study of His mind is very personal to me, because it seems to be a tad bit overlooked. I guess that's understandable. God's creativity, in the sense that I mean, isn't really the thing that we base major doctrines off of. But knowing that God thinks the same way I do, (just. . . to the nth, because, you know, He's God) makes Him so much more relatable!  And no doctrine, no matter how true, can match the thrill of getting to know a Being so beyond human grasp.

Now, hang on for a moment. This is the good stuff. This is why I love having a creative God. Here goes:

This fantastical. . . Being, Who's always been, Who has more power than I could ever dream of, Who literally is the only thing keeping our little Earth-rock from spinning out of control, this God had an eternity to wait until He made everything. I would get bored. But, of course, God didn't. He was busy.

For a whole forever, God planned. Sort of a holy drawing-board. He sat and decided to stripe His zebras. To make cats the floppiest mammals. To make dessert flowers so small we can't see them- they're just there because He felt like it.

And then, I think God got so excited about His ideas He had to talk about them. And in His still, small voice that can melt worlds, God spoke. And as He talked about His fantastic ideas, because He's God, they happened.

And God, with all His power that I can't imagine, holiness I can't grasp, and creativity without edges, decided He wanted me here. Me, with my depression and anxiety and physical deformities and incapabilites and everything else. . . He decided that I was worth His time and His effort, so He planned me out- frizzy hair to missing fingers. The God of everything came up with the idea for me. And He decided I was worth the effort it would take Him to make me and win me. Somehow, my being in Heaven someday is so important to God that He risked all the pain I put Him through, (He knew what He was getting into) and God. Made. Me.

If He can invest so much, maybe I can live through today. Since He risked His heart in starting the beat of mine, I can learn, just a little today, about the beat of His heart that's big enough to hold all of us and strong enough to break for each of us.

 Apparently He thinks I'm worth His time.

I know He's worth my life.

May you find the same to be true for you. God thinks you're worth His effort and risk, and whether or not you believe it, I do.

~Dolly 

Tea Memories

I haven't always been a tea drinker, at least, not a sophisticated one. My mom's always been a coffee person, so I grew up appreciating lattes, breves, normal coffee with (lots of) cream, etc. My Dad kept a stash of mint teas, and Mom occasionally made us drink chamomile (ugh) or sleepytime blends when we were having particular insomnia, but I'd never had experience beyond that.

All that changed when I was at Brownsville Mennonite's Girl's Club, and we had a tea party. The ladies in my cousin Jenny's (here's her creative blog. she writes her own poetry!) family are all avid tea drinkers, to the best of my knowledge, and Auntie Dorcas (her very insightful blog is here) brought an array of teas, including some fancy loose-leaf black tea from Kenya. Honestly, it wasn't my favorite. Kind of bitter and dark and strong, so not the ideal tea to start out with, but it broadened my horizons.

Later, after I (finally!) passed Driver's Ed (That's a story for another time, if ya'll wanna hear. . . read? . . . it.), Mom and I stopped by Auntie Dorcas's to tell them the good news, especially since it's a house full of empathetic listeners. When she heard the news, my cousin Emily (her blog is here, and it's pretty awesome. She's pretty adventurous.) literally jumped in the air, then ran upstairs to grab a celebratory pot of tea she'd been brewing in her room. (I told you they were avid tea drinkers.) That's when tea started to become a sign of happy memories and hospitality: something warm and comforting.

Then about a year ago, one of my favoritest people started broadening her own tea horizons, and I was invited along for the ride. This past school year and summer vacation especially, Hannah and I hung out a lot. And tea was quite often involved. We would sit around, listening to a new favorite song, talking about her latest Ted Dekker book, and catching up on each other's lives. And drinking tea. My personal favorite was Meyer Lemon (which we can only find at Fred Meyer's, which amuses us), and Hannah tried something different each time. She's more of a tea-adventurer than I am. During this time, my appreciation of tea deepened and became a sign of connections and friendships and shared enjoyment and peaceful. . . just abiding together. To me, abiding is being so comfortable with someone that you can totally rest in their presence without feeling threatened, and bare your heart without fear of rejection. That's what tea started to represent to me.

During this summer vacation (I think), Hannah made us a London fog. I pretended to be helpful and tried to stay out of the way. More recently, we experimented together on Early Grey Shortbread Cookies for a tea party. That's when tea, specifically Earl Grey, came to represent teamwork and warm fuzzy feelings, like the wonderful smells of cookies and tea mingled together and filling the kitchen, or the companionable feeling of making a drink together and then getting to appreciate your efforts. In short, I'm sitting by an empty jar that used to hold a London Fog I made this morning, and remembering how I got to this point. A year ago, I maybe would've had an idea of what Earl Grey was. Maybe. Now I have an entire (though short) tea history to look back over!

I'm grateful for the people that helped me get here. Auntie Dorcas, who introduced me to black tea, Emily, who introduced me to the celebration of tea, and Hannah, who introduced me to the companionship of tea. You have truly filed my life with good things. I'm grateful for our shared tea memories, and the new tea moments we'll hopefully share together.

~Dolly