A Shepherd's Story

Vocation

The little girl to the right of Miriam in this picture is about two months younger than Miriam. This afternoon, her daddy left for a 5-month deployment overseas. 

It makes me think of two things. 1) It makes me appreciate and enjoy every day that I have to watch all my little ones grow. I may not get to be home with them as much as I would like, but I don't have to be away for even days at a time, much less months.  2) It makes me appreciate the sacrifice that other fathers will make so that I can live in safety and be with my family. 

This appreciation sheds new light on the vocations in which I serve. What else can I do but to strive to be the best father and husband I can? And to be a shepherd to families such as this, in times such as this? What else could I want?

Singing the Catechism

In 2006, we introduced Concordia Publishing House's new Sunday School curriculum, Growing in Christ, to our congregation in California. We did that for several reasons, but probably the biggest reasons were that it followed the flow of the church year and that it was distinctly Lutheran. One of the ways that the curriculum is distinctly Lutheran is its regular connections to Luther's Small Catechism. As a part of that, I was so pleased to find that on the CDs which accompany the student materials in the lower level there were newly composed tunes for singing the words of the Small Catechism. The first quarter had sections from the first article of the creed. The tunes were catchy and memorable.

The one downside, I thought, was that the translation used for these recordings is just a little different from the catechism translation published by Northwestern Publishing House and generally in use in the WELS. When we are dealing with texts to be memorized, consistency and uniformity is usually a plus. It makes me think of Luther's comments in his preface to the Small Catechism:

In the first place, let the preacher above all be careful to avoid many kinds of or various texts and forms of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Sacraments, etc., but choose one form to which he adheres, and which he inculcates all the time, year after year. For [I give this advice, however, because I know that] young and simple people must be taught by uniform, settled texts and forms, otherwise they easily become confused when the teacher to-day teaches them thus, and in a year some other way, as if he wished to make improvements, and thus all effort and labor [which has been expended in teaching] is lost.

Also our blessed fathers understood this well; for they all used the same form of the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. Therefore we, too, should [imitate their diligence and be at pains to] teach the young and simple people these parts in such a way as not to change a syllable, or set them forth and repeat them one year differently than in another [no matter how often we teach the Catechism]. From bookofconcord.org

On the other hand, I realize that our translations must adjust over time so that they might remain understandable and memorable. I know that I learned the words of the catechism slightly differently than I teach them today (but I've re-learned them in the new version). And both are different from the way my parents learned them, and in a completely different language than my grandparents learned them. So while the translation issue is something I'm aware of, I'm not too concerned about it. I have thought that if a student of mine were able to learn the words of the catechism by heart and they happened to use a slightly different wording, I wouldn't make them re-learn it using the official WELS translation. 

So I haven't made much use of these recordings—yet. But I'm now thinking that perhaps I should. In the most recent quarter of Growing in Christ, the section of the catechism on the kids CDs is The Sacrament of the Altar. The CD has been playing in our van's stereo for about 10 weeks now. And Lydia, our three year old, loves to sing along with it and pretty much has the whole section memorized. It's like pulling teeth to get my 7th and 8th graders to memorize these words, but a three year old sings without hesitation, "What is the Sacrament of the Altar? It is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ..." She will even sing these words outside of the car, while playing around the house. And if I start singing a phrase, like, "Where is this written?" She will sing, "The holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and St. Paul write…" (I just tried it and that's exactly what she did.) Even Isaiah, our two year old, will sing along with parts.

And then, just this morning, I was teaching Bible Class on the Lord's Supper and when I started reading a section on Communion from the Small Catechism, I could hear the melody in my head as I read the words. This has even helped me.

So I decided that it would be worth it to purchase the whole collection and to encourage others to do the same. You can purchase the recordings on CD from Concordia, as well as in a printed songbook. Or, you can download the whole thing or piece by piece (much more expensive) in iTunes or on Amazon.com. For just $7.99. That's really nothing when I think of how much it is worth to me to have these words of faith imprinted on the minds and hearts of my children.

Maria Kristina

A week ago, my brother Adrian and his wife Lia had a baby born at less than 26 weeks. She weighed 1lb. 8 oz.  Maria was received as a child of God by Holy Baptism not long after she was born.

So far things have gone as well as can be expected. This afternoon at 1:30, Maria will have surgery to take care of an air pocket in her right lung. The doctors have been watching it closely and after a CT scan yesterday, decided to go in.

You can read more about Maria and the situation on her CaringBridge site:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mariakristinacaauwe

I would just like to ask for your prayers for this little one.

Kyrie eleison - Lord, have mercy

Miriam Jeanette

Miriam Jeanette Caauwe was born this afternoon at 4:26pm. She weighed 7lbs., 14 oz. and measured 20 3/4 inches.

We knew she was coming for nine months. We made plans. We anxiously waited. But it always amazes me how quickly new babies go from an idea, an unknown individual, to a dear person who suddenly becomes the object of my love and affection. Not that I didn't know that she was an individual in the womb. Not that I didn't love her yesterday. But something is different this evening as I think about what has happened today and how everything has changed for this little one and for us, now seven of us. Now she has a name, and a face we can see. And in the years ahead, we have a million ways we can now show our love to her, by caring for her needs and by being father and mother to this one who is now so small. And perhaps that is what has changed from yesterday to today. Now we have these concrete ways of showing our love.

But it strikes me that God doesn't work that way. He doesn't/didn't wait for us to even be born before he showed his love for us in the most concrete way. In the birth of a child—his, not ours—he expressed love to those yet to be born. In acts of obedience and acts of love to others, with bloody nails and spear, with an empty cave, God acted in love before we ever came on the scene. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you," God told Jeremiah.

And all the while we (and our children) were in the womb—known to our parents only in their imagination, God knew us and loved us before and while he knit us together in that womb. What an extraordinary and concrete act of love! So this whole process of birth seems to be God's way of introducing to us the one he has known all along.

What an awesome joy it will be then, to re-introduce this one (whom God knew from eternity) to her heavenly Father, not simply as one of his (fallen) creatures, but as one who has been washed and clothed in the blood of His Son. It will be a joy to bring her to Holy Baptism, to be marked with the name of God and the cross of his Son.

Pictures on MobileMe Gallery

Shepherds and Angels

This is an old video, but I thought I would share it again. This is when Hannah was three, and preparing for her first children's Christmas service.

 

If the video is not embedded, click here to watch it on YouTube.

Three

Today is our Lydia's 3rd birthday. Three years ago just after the daylight savings time change (if she had been born an hour earlier, she would have been born at exactly the same time), this sweet little girl entered our life. 

After about 18 months of "terrible twos," we're ready for this milestone. Now we'll see if she will really do all the things she said she'd do "when I'm three."

Lydia's favorite Disney character is Ariel, from the Little Mermaid. You'll see and hear that in the video. There's a picture of her hugging Ariel at Disneyland, taken just after she said, "You're my favorite." In the video clip at the beginning of the slideshow, Lydia isn't really directing a fanfare—she's really singing "O Jesus Christ, Your Manger Is". But it works. Happy Birthday, Ariel Lydia!

Children in Worship

With four children (and soon-to-be five) under the age of six, I am naturally interested in the topic of children and worship. But it's not just for my own children. As a pastor I am interested in all the little lambs who need to hear the voice of their shepherd.

I believe that Lutherans approach this topic from a rather unique perspective. (Unique because so many others do do not approach it in the same way.) The biblical teachings of original sin, the way the Holy Spirit works faith through the means of grace, and the understanding of the primary purpose of public worship as God's service to us—all these affect the way we think about the place of children in worship.

I want to share with you an audio segment from the Lutheran radio show "Issues, etc." It is a discussion about this topic that I found useful. You'll can listen to it here on the website or click the link below if that doesn't work. I also included a link to another book that talks about children and worship.

Issues, etc on Children in Worship

The picture here is part of an altarpiece in Wittenberg. I shared this with our school kids in chapel this morning. The point is pretty easy to get. Martin Luther preaches in such a way that Christ is the center of his preaching and the people's worship. But take a look at the congregation. Notice the kids right in the front. Even an infant sitting on a lap. Receiving God's gifts right along with the others. Someday I hope to have a good-sized print of this painting hanging in my study.

Kid Pictures

This evening I uploaded a couple albums of pictures from the kids' cameras. Both Hannah and Andrew have the Fisher-Price Digital Cameras, which they got as Christmas presents. The cameras don't take great pictures, but they're fun for the kids, they really do take pictures, and every once in a while a good picture comes out. As I emptied the cameras tonight, Andrew's camera had over 800 pics; Hannah's had almost 300. On our gallery page, you can see the selection of pictures that were better than most. Enjoy.

Web Gallery

Bedtime Hymns

Every night at bedtime the kids get to pick a song to sing. Several nights ago Andrew picked a random hymn from the hymnal, "Our Father, Who from Heaven Above" (CW 410), Luther's hymn on the Lord's Prayer. I didn't fight him on it.

But since Hannah can read well enough to sing hymns that she hasn't seen before, I really enjoyed singing several stanzas of this hymn with her.

Ultrasound

 

Today we got to see ultrasound images of our littlest one. We've seen plenty of ultrasound pictures, but seeing those little arms and feet moving around never gets old. It always amazes me to see four chambers of the heart and a cross section of this or that, or to measure the skull or abdomen. But what always gets me are the little fingers and toes. This picture doesn't show the classic profile view of our baby. It's his/her feet, just around an inch long.