A Generation That Did Not Know God

And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the Lord had done for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel. (Judges 2:7-10)

I came across this passage in my Bible reading yesterday. (See this post I wrote about the plan I'm using this year.) As a mom, I think this has got to be one of the most sobering and saddening passages in the Bible. Think about it. The people of Israel were slaves in Egypt. Then God, by his own mighty hand and through incredible feats of power, delivered them. God's fame spread through all the known world. Then God led them through the desert. He provided them with food and water. And he gave them his law, so that they would know how to live. (They didn't have to use guesswork or trial and error to please him like the idol worshipers did with their gods.) He subdued nations before them. He even appeared to them in smoke and fire on Mount Sinai. And all through this time, he kept telling them to remember and pass down the stories of what he had done.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

My Five, Yes Five, Trees

As you can tell by this panorama picture (an awesome feature on my husband's iPhone 5!) of our living area, I'm a little obsessed with Christmas trees!

It's my Grandmother's fault really. She started buying ornaments for me for my first Christmas. Every year she added to my collection. She continues this tradition to this day for all of her grandchildren and their spouses, and now for her great-grandchild, my son. As I got older, I became obsessed with Christmas ornaments. In fact during my teen years, I'd hang anything with a hook on the tree, including a miniature windsock and a Christmas pin! Anytime I travel, I can't resist picking up an ornament. And I love to hit up Hobby Lobby and Target after Christmas each year and pick up cute ornaments for 50-75% off! 

By the time I moved out on my own, I had nearly 100 ornaments. That first year, I went to Wal-Mart and found a six-foot tree (center in the picture above) that I decked out and set up in my tiny apartment. It was over-loaded with ornaments! By the next Christmas, I was engaged. (Actually, it was supposed to happen on Christmas day, but I ruined it. You can read that story here!) Since I was now going to be married and living in a bigger place, I went to the Hobby Lobby 75% off After-Christmas sale and found a nice 7.5-foot, pre-lit tree (far right in the picture). I figured I'd have enough ornaments to fill both trees the next year. After all, I was adding lots from our time dating. I even bought two on our honeymoon!

The next year, my in-laws, seeing my budding obsession with Christmas trees, asked if we wanted to have their very real looking, pre-lit tree (far left) from Bronner's (an amazing Christmas store in Frankenmouth, MI. It's worth the trip if you're ever in Michigan!) My father-in-law is a die-hard proponent of cutting down your own tree every year. My mother-in-law talked him into trying an artificial tree, so they bought the most realistic one they could find. But it wasn't the same. So we happily inherited it! In the bag they gave us with that tree in it, we found a whole other tree (middle left). When we asked about it, they realized they had inadvertently given us my husband's great-grandmother's tree. We offered to give it back to them, but they said to keep it. So we did!

For two years, we "made do" with four trees. But this year, I attended a class at our church where we learned how to make Jesse Tree ornaments. The idea came from this website, and is an Advent calendar of sorts. You and your family can trace the story of Redemption from Creation to Christ throughout the month of December. The blogger provides pictures to color and cut out and hang on the tree for each day, but our church's children's department leaders, being the amazingly creative people that they are, decided to spruce them a bit. They gave all of us the materials to make all 25 ornaments. They also provided all the devotionals in a spiral bound book. I am really excited about setting our minds on the real reason for Christmas with these daily devotions. I know our son probably isn't comprehending much, but it's never to soon to start giving him the truth of Scripture! So of course, I needed a small table-top tree for these ornaments (middle right in above picture).

And there you have it! Five Christmas trees, all pretty full of ornaments. Somehow, I don't think I'm done, either. There's no tree in the den, or in my son's bedroom, or in our bedroom. . . .

Thanksgiving Challenge, Day 22

 Day #22: I'm thankful that God didn't create us to live alone.

As John Donne said, "No man is an island." (Read the whole poem here. It's really good!) God created us to live in community with other believers. We need people to encourage us and spur us closer to God (1 Thessalonians 5:11). I'm so thankful for my husband, my community group, my friends, and my extended family that help me to become what God is making me to be.