Happy Birthday, Jenny!

Eight Months!

Today Emry is eight whole months old! It’s a bit hard to believe that this time last year I was thinking about what fun it would be to have a baby around for Christmas – and now she’s here! And she is a lot of fun.

It seems we’ve grown a lot this past month. Well, that’s a bit relative with her. She’s reached just about 13 pounds. I have packed away all her 3-month clothes and had to buy size 2 diapers for a trip to Indiana! She eats just about anything we do. Her favorites are green beans, sweet potatoes and Chex cereal but she also likes apples, bananas, carrots, black beans, peaches, pears, potatoes, Cheerios…the only thing I now feed her on a spoon is yogurt. But we do not like peas or avocadoes.

As yet, no teeth have come in. Nor are we crawling. But we are making our way around everywhere! The other night I was in the kitchen and heard Ed, who was lying on the couch while she played on the floor, “Emry! Did you come over here to visit Papa?” Very rarely is she in the same place I put her when I come back. She also LOVES making noises. Squeals, laughs, whistling (which she actually can do), flipping her bottom lip with her own little hand, blowing raspberries. And she has now learned to shake her head “No”, although she doesn’t seem to know quite what it means yet.

Eight months! – what a blessing!

Getting bigger…

Sitting with Sock Monkey.

Being silly.

Decorating for Christmas

Last Saturday we went out and bought our Christmas tree. We have to confess that Emry was not overly impressed with the whole process. Perhaps because she only took a short morning nap and refused to go to sleep after her lunch. I don’t think she smiled the whole time we wandered about, measuring and picking out the “perfect” tree. But we did manage to coax some smiles later as we strung the lights on it. The next day when we put out Ed’s train, we were in better spirits. So while the tree still doesn’t seem to impress, she is enjoying the new “toys” to play with.

Helping Papa string the lights.

Papa, I want that Santa hat!

Okay – maybe not!

Her favorite ornament: it has bells in it that ring.

Train Conductor Emry.

We also like Mama’s carousel.

Emry's First Thanksgiving

Already holidays are much more fun with a little one in the house. (Okay, perhaps a little bit more stressful, too, but the fun outweighs the stress.) Emry is only 7 months old, of course. Lord willing, we have many years ahead where she will be more and more apart of the holiday season. But we’re still off to a very good start.

First, she helped decorate. Ed wanted the mantle looking nice for Thanksgiving, so we went ahead and decorated it for the season with lights, and candles, and ribbon, and evergreens. Since we were in the mood, I went ahead and unpacked my Christmas village (which is always nice to enjoy longer than a few weeks in December). Emry helped me unpack it. As you can see, she liked the lights best (although the ribbon was fun, too):

For Thanksgiving, we had Ed’s parents (who are divorced) and his father’s girlfriend over for dinner. When they first arrived, Emry wasn’t quite sure what to make of all the old people cooing all over her. She sat on her blanket and just stared at them. Then Grandpa Camus got down on the floor to play with her. Ed joined them and I soon heard her squealing with laugher. She wasn’t shy for long.

She joined us in her high chair for dinner and enjoyed just about everything we did. She had some green beans (one of her favorites), sweet potatoes, a little bit of turkey, pieces of a roll and a couple of tastes of cranberry sauce. She was very happy with all of it. For such a little thing, she has a very hearty appetite.

She only showed her unhappy side once. She simply did not want to go down for an afternoon nap, certain she would miss something. But she needed to lie down, so she got put in her crib where she did eventually fall asleep. She woke up much happier so she could charm everyone one more time before they left. All in all, I think she enjoyed her first Thanksgiving very much.

Justifying

At church, our pastor is going through an interesting study in Sunday school he has entitled: “Gay Marriage, Women Pastors and Applying the Bible Today”. As any good writer knows, a catchy title is the starting place for selling a good book.

And a Sunday school class. In actuality, it is a class on hermeneutics, which is the study of applying the Bible in one’s day-to-day life. Of course, there are thousands of things one could study in such a class. He has chosen some “hot topics” as his launch pad, although the class will cover other things outside of women pastors and homosexuality. In our church, you could say he is speaking to the choir. However, the sad reality is that these heinous sins are slipping quietly into the church. In fact, it may be hard to come by a church in Emry’s generation that doesn’t stand against these serious problems.

This past Sunday, we started the study on homosexuality. Apparently, there is a book out that is pretty popular in evangelical circles right now entitled God and the Gay Christian. I haven’t read it, so I won’t sit here and denounce every single word it contains. But, first off, why would anyone take their theology from a guy with a degree from Harvard? We all know that college isn’t putting out Puritans today…

That aside, the title alone should be a red flag. I’m not saying there aren’t Christians who struggle with the sin of homosexuality, but can any true believer cheerfully stand up and proudly call themselves gay? I’m going to say no. No more than a true believer would proudly call themselves a liar, cheat, thief, murderer or adulterer.

Which is what I started thinking on Sunday. Homosexuality and gay marriage is an extremely hot topic in our world today. Like most people, I live in a neighborhood with at least one such “couple”. So it’s no surprise that “Christians” are putting out books trying to justify homosexual behavior. (Such as saying Sodom was destroyed because of the sin of gang rape and inhospitality. The former, certainly. As for the latter, how many straws can you grasp at here?)  But if we’re going to sit around and justify a heinous sin that is condemned both in the Old and New Testaments, why stop there?

I mean, isn’t it interesting that we don’t find a book on the Christian best seller list trying to justify lying? I think someone could make a pretty good case for that with the story of Rahab. How about murder? Surely God didn’t curse Cain because he killed Abel, right? Maybe someone should write a book justifying covetousness, or disobeying your parents, or cheating on your spouse? There are a myriad of sins we could sweep under the table, twisting the Bible so it supports our natural ways.

I think the reason you don’t find such books is because Christians (both those who truly are saved by God’s grace and those who claim the title in name only) agree that murder, adultery, and stealing are sins. Mostly. There are those who call murder by other names (abortion, euthanasia, etc.). And people will forever be trying to justify their actions. But I don’t see any books on the shelf entitled: God and the Christian Liar. So, why is homosexuality different?

Honestly, I don’t have an answer to that. Maybe it’s because it’s not just a “church topic” but a political one. Or maybe because gays are loud at demanding their “rights”, being heard over anyone else and getting on the front page of the news. In the end, I suppose, the answer is that man is by nature a sinner. And sinners want to be justified in their sin. So, they write books with ridiculous titles and incredulous ideas. And, sadly, it works.

At least for now. Because eternity is coming. A time when the only justifying that matters comes from a Holy God (instead of ourselves) and the only book that stands is His. A wonderful and blessed time for those of us who truly are Christians. But for those who twist God’s Word to justify their sin…well, they’ll soon know that Sodom wasn’t destroyed because they were “inhospitable”.

Lord, come quickly! Amen.