Tuesday, August 13, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
First day of school
The Lord God said to me, obey me when I speak to you, do not be rebellious as is the house around you. Just open your mouth and eat what I shall give you. And I received a written scroll filled with lamentation and wailing and woe. Son of man, eat what is before you. Eat this book.
The kids of the world start school in all kinds of ways. We spent yesterday morning watching Miles and Jasper start their own school, their kindergarten, their second grade. A friendly guy with a long black beard took pictures of us standing in front of the 2024 balloons with the family, and then we began the short trek to the always, twice-a-week chapel service, where after the parents got their seats, the kids walked in. First the pre-K, then Jasper’s kindergarten class, first grade, then Miles’ second grade class all the way up to the high school seniors.
And I ate the book, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. I gasp with open mouth in my yearning for your commands. How sweet to my taste is your promise.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith led the opening song. We sang, and the kids sang, and the school year opened with praise.
Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigns
Have you not seen how your desires all have been granted in what he ordained?
In that first moment the song left no doubt that we were in a grace-filled place. That the teachers and students agreed to give God glory and leave the detritus of the world behind. All of us, fallen children of God, invited to open our hearts to joy and forgiveness, one day at a time. One evening last week, while Miles and Jasper were having an overnight with us, parents met together to fan out into the entire school … and pray.
Praise to the Lord, who has fearfully, wonderfully made you
What need or grief ever have failed of relief?
Wings of his mercy did shade thee.
Last week those parents prayed over every child, every young man and women, by name. Now the reading, writing, and arithmetic, not to mention the music and the art and the classical history curricula, can find foundation on the solid rock of God’s creation and God’s constant grace, and now whatever social conflicts and psychological barriers might arise will not be the last things standing.
Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper your work and defend you
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
Who with his love does befriend you.
We sang all five verses, full of the thee’s and thou’s I replaced in our devotion. I felt so much promise and potential brimming just under the surface of the everyday routines and the surprising discoveries, one day at a time in a budding school in Austin.
Praise to the Lord, oh let all that is in me adore him!
All that has life and breath, come now with praises before him!
Let the AMEN sounds from his people again
Gladly, oh yes! We adore him!
Toward the end of the afternoon the temps outside hit 100 degrees. The unrelenting sun accompanied the parents and children home. In this school system, days spent together alternate with days of home school. I think how some kids come home from school every day to uncomfortably hot living rooms, their parents less present than absent, and I realize again how this oasis blesses Miles and Jasper, how they might not realize it but God is preparing them to overcome the world.
See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.
(Ezekiel 2, Psalm 119, Matthew 11, Matthew 18)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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