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An Encounter in the Woods

July 23, 2015 by Cosette

During the Colton family’s journey along the Great National Road, their driver stops to assist an overturned stagecoach. As the men work, Suzannah, her cousin Daniel, and their friend Timmy walk along the Road to stretch their legs.

“Let’s have a snowball fight!” cried Timmy.

They ventured into the woods only a few steps to get the soft snow which was just right for packing. Soon snowballs were flying.

“Got you, Daniel!” Suzannah shouted as one plastered his face, freezing his grin.

“And here’s one for you!” He snapped a quick return and sent the snowball sailing through the air. She ducked, and it splatted harmlessly on the shoulder of her cloak.

They were having a fine time, wandering deeper and deeper into the forest, when Timmy said, “Look!”

Suzannah turned. Just behind her stood two bear cubs. Plump and round, they had bright button eyes and soft-as-down fur. She put out her hand and took a step toward them.

Curious, one of the cubs shuffled over to nose her traveling bag.

As if from nowhere, a huge black bear appeared out of the dark recesses of the forest. Rising up on its hind feet, the bear growled. Even in the shadows, Suzannah could see a row of sharp teeth and the long toenails extending from the front feet.

Daniel, who’d been gathering snow further away, caught
sight of them. “The mother bear! Run!” he shouted.

But Suzannah stood rooted to the spot, her legs weak and heavy. Beside her, Timmy seemed just as stunned.

“Run!” Daniel urged again. “They smell the strawberry jam sandwiches! Leave your bag and run!”

The thought of parting with the gold coins jolted Suzannah into action. “Run, Timmy, run!” Traveling bag in hand, she ran with him for the Road.

Once she turned, almost tripping over a tree root, and saw the cubs still behind them and the huge mother bear in pursuit. Suddenly Suzannah knew just what to do. Still running wildly, she grabbed in her bag for the strawberry jam sandwiches, then pulled one out and hurled it at a cub.

[Excerpt adapted from Suzannah and the Secret Coins by Elaine Schulte (Chapter 6, pp. 64–65). This title is the first in the Colton Cousins Adventure series.]

Facing the Wolves

July 9, 2015 by Cosette

As Benj and Peter prepare to return to the valley for the winter, they find that Biddy, the lead sheep, refuses to go down the road. Benj, a wise old shepherd, decides young Peter must fool Biddy so that she’ll lead the flock home.

Peter knew that sheep disliked going over a hilltop, fearing the unknown other side, but the plan to fool Biddy would come to nothing if they didn’t go over the hilltop and swing down from it to the gate.

“Come along,” Peter said, stamping his foot impatiently, a thing Benj had told him he must never do. The sheep stepped backward toward the fence, their hooves slipping on the sharp rocks. A ram lamb baaed arrogantly.

“You’re just silly sheep,” Peter retorted and, acting as if he didn’t care what they did, started up the hillside.

There were boulders at the top and he picked his way carefully among them. Suddenly he stopped still, gripping a rock and flattening himself against it. Not ten paces from him was a gray wolf and around her four well-grown cubs were playing—prettily, if anything that spelt such horror could be pretty. His hands felt like ice on the rock. Water coming from a spout would have had more strength to it than his legs had then.

A tuft of flowers, growing in a cleft in the rock beside him, was bending in the wind—bending away from the wolf family so heedless of their visitor. Peter was glad the wind was blowing against him. He inched himself back along the rock, through the tangled boulders, then turned and raced down the rough slope. There was no need now to call the sheep to follow him, for they had already taken themselves down to the fence and were standing there waiting. One lamb had even squeezed himself through and the ewe was standing with the wire between them, baaing plaintively.

“Silly sheep, indeed,” Peter said to them, “you’ve got more sense than a boy who goes to school.”

His fingers were trembling, but he undid the wire quickly and made an opening. The sheep crawled through first, following the one who was impatient to reach her lamb. Peter wriggled himself through. There was a rending sound, but he was in too much of a hurry to reach the other side to notice it. He raced across the grass, onto the road. Benj saw him and the six sheep coming from the opposite direction than he expected them.

[Excerpt adapted from Mountain Born by Elizabeth Yates (Chapter 6, pp. 63–65).]

A Five-Minute Portrait of God’s Providential Means

June 25, 2015 by Cosette

Have you ever had your portrait done at a fair or festival by a speed artist? I haven’t, but I have watched one at work. The result may not be something you’d frame and hang in your living room or pass down to future generations as a treasured family heirloom. Nevertheless, a skilled artist has the knack of capturing your most prominent features so that, in about five minutes, you have a remarkably recognizable representation of yourself.

Jonah presents a five-minute portrait of providence. Have you ever noticed the tools of providence employed in the story of Jonah, and how explicitly each incident is connected to the direct intervention and activity of God?

After Jonah’s initial disobedience to the Lord’s call (when he took a ship sailing in the opposite direction God wanted him to go), “the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea,” a “mighty tempest” that threatened the ship itself and the lives of all those on it (Jonah 1:4). Once Jonah was cast overboard (“and the sea ceased from her raging”), “the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah” (Jonah 1:17). When that encounter had accomplished its designed effect, “the Lord spake unto the fish” and it unceremoniously deposited Jonah onto a nearby beach.

Jonah finally made it to Nineveh. But he still balked at what God wanted to do through him, so God wanted to make a point. Consequently, “the Lord God prepared a gourd” (Jonah 4:6), a plant to shade Jonah from the heat. But the very next day “God prepared a worm” (Jonah 4:7) to eat the plant and destroy the very gift He had just given to Jonah. To make matters worse (and to make His point more keenly), “God prepared a vehement east wind” to chase away the clouds so that the hot sun “beat upon the head of Jonah.” There are a number of implications and applications of what God was doing in Jonah’s life. But our primary interest here is in God’s providential use of means to accomplish His will.

The Holy Spirit’s inspiration of the wording of this story is not accidental or insignificant. God directly, personally, and providentially employs such common, “natural” means as weather (Jonah 1:4), whales (Jonah 1:17, 2:10), weeds (Jonah 4:6), worms (Jonah 4:7), and winds (Jonah 4:8). (I know Jonah 1:17 says “great fish” and not “whale,” but I needed a w. Besides, if God providentially controls “great fish,” He certainly providentially controls whales too.)

[Excerpt adapted from Not by Chance by Layton Talbert (Chapter 7, pp. 114-15). ]

The Servant Father

June 11, 2015 by Cosette

It is the father’s responsibility to rule his family in a loving, considerate way while maintaining the necessary firmness. He leads in sacrifice. He asks more of himself than of his family. He leads in love. He is energetic in generosity, delighted to provide those extras he knows will please his family as he is able and to the extent he can.

He also leads in sensitivity. A wife needs continuing reassurance of her husband’s love and of his appreciation of her role. Children need continuing reassurance of their parents’ love and of their own importance in the family. The father leads as a provider of the physical and emotional needs of the family but also of its spiritual needs, situating his wife and children agreeably in a church where they can spiritually grow and be blessed. Wise fathers are sensitive to these needs and endeavor to satisfy them.

In the family order described by Paul, who then serves? The children serve upwardly. They are charged with obedience to their parents. They must serve their parents if their parents are to serve them. The wife serves both upwardly and downwardly. She is charged with submission to her husband and with the care of her household. The father, the earthly head of the family, serves upwardly his divine Head and reports to Him directly. But he also serves downwardly. He serves his wife and children and the family in aggregate. He is charged with their well-being.

His obligation rests mightily on his shoulders. It includes more than his family’s subsistence. He is its giver-in-chief. To serve his family as he should he will need to join with his mate in seeking the help of the greatest Servant of all.

That great Servant put the question of service and status bluntly to His disciples, who from their behavior to one another needed to ponder it. “Whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth” (Luke 22:27). Jesus shamed them by washing their feet, a lowly task they would not have considered doing for one another. To resist service for the sake of status is to resist the example of God.

[Excerpt adapted from Family: The Making and Remaking of a Christian Home by Ronald Horton (Chapter 6, pp. 27–28).]

Sustaining Grace

May 26, 2015 by Cosette

In my determination to sort out and simplify my life, I decided to have a yard sale. While excavating through my mounds of boxed treasures, I found a plaque that had been a gift from a woman whom my children lovingly call “Grandma Mary.” The words once again challenged my heart.

The will of God will never lead you
where the grace of God cannot keep you.

I have desired to walk in God’s will since I was a little girl. Being saved at a very early age, I grew up wanting to know and obey God’s will for my life. But there have been times that in spite of my confidence that I was in His will, I felt the burdens seemingly overwhelm me. During a particularly difficult time, I was unable to define God’s grace. Yet this grace of God was what I heard would carry me through whatever I faced. I began a study—a searching—to understand what the sustaining grace of God really meant. I found many—sixty-three definitions—all of which described this commonly used biblical term. But my inquiring heart was settled when I put the various definitions into a nutshell: God’s grace is His enabling power that is given to me, His undeserving child.

Now as I read the words on this forgotten little plaque, the meaning is deeper. I realize that He’s proven it again and again in my life. I may not think He’s keeping me in the midst of the trial, but never has He forsaken me, never allowed me to be crushed by the burden He has permitted. He is there moment by moment—guiding me. Keeping me. Sustaining me. In spite of my resistance and fear. The words on this plaque are unchanged as they hang on the wall of my office. But the meaning is clearer to me now than ever before.

The will of God will never lead me
where the . . . [power] of God cannot keep me.

[Excerpt adapted from A Life Exalted by June Kimmel (Lesson 8, pp. 62–63). A free study guide can be downloaded from bjupress.com.]

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