Jonathan's Faith

All my life I've heard the story of David and Jonathan's friendship. When we read the story in 1 Samuel 20, the moral of the story was usually about deep friendship and loyalty. Sometimes Sunday School teachers even pointed out that Jonathan was a dear friend of the man who had been anointed to be the next king, the man who would be depriving Jonathan of his kingdom.

But when you start looking at the conversations between David and Jonathan, you realize it's about more than this.

Why does Jonathan love David? Because he believes in Yahweh, and he desires that God's will be done. He loves and reveres the anointed one. Not only does David's coming kingship mean that Jonathan will not be king, but as Jonathan looked to the future, he probably knew David's kingship was likely to bring about his own death. A change of dynasty seldom goes well for the princes. And yet, he loved David and protected David. I don't think this was so much an example of loyalty to a friend, but it was an example of a man taking seriously what we say in the confirmation vows: we will be faithful to this confession even if it costs us our life.

Sure enough, Jonathan's dad, the king, tried to kill him for his faith in Yahweh and his love for the anointed one. Eventually Jonathan would be killed in a battle with the Philistines -- not by David's followers. I suppose it shouldn't be amazing to me how Jonathan could embrace what God said about David being the next king. How big a fraidy-cat would I be with a future like that stretched out in front of me? But God sustained him through it all.

My Wednesday Daughter

My Anthea

Once upon a time --I think it was Advent or Lent one year-- Anthea began driving an hour to come to church on Wednesday nights for midweek services. We loved her. And once we actually convinced Rachel that Anthea truly existed and was not an invented & imaginary creature, they got to be good friends too. Anthea would come visit on Wednesday evenings, go to church with us, and then watch the results of that week's American Idol show with us.

We took to calling her our Wednesday daughter, and she called us her Wednesday family.

Then she moved to Texas. Many a sigh from Anthea. And her friends. And her bio-family. And her Wednesday family. When she makes it to her folks' in northern Illinois, sometimes she drives all the way out here to see us -- long haul though it be.

She's living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. So are Katie and Nathan now. But man oh man -- that's one big city. It takes forever to drive around it. Not having time to fit in a good visit at either home, we instead met Anthea (on a Wednesday!) at an Argentinian bakery not too far from the airport. We fit in a 75-minute visit and ate some awesome sweets and drank too much delicious "detox tea."

Ah, it's good to see her. She's still job-hunting. Our metro-area is still on her radar for possibilities if she can't find work closer to her hometown. It'd be sweet to have her closer. Especially if she's as good at scouting out northern coffee shops as she is at finding places in Dallas.

Four Generations

My father-in-law wanted a snapshot of four generations of us women for the newspaper.

Interesting that my mother-in-law (who hates having her picture taken because she thinks they always turn out poorly) was the one captured best in this photo. :-) I betcha it's because my father-in-law was the photographer, doncha spoze?