Giving the Greatest Gift at Our Christian School

A favourite Christmas stories to read to my children is The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado. Joshua, a lamb who didn’t fit in and was broken, believed he had nothing of value to offer the newly arrived King. I won’t share his gift so you can enjoy the story for yourself if you haven’t already, but the gift was one that the lamb hadn’t even considered to be valuable.  

Perhaps the truest delight of Christmas gift-giving (not gift-getting) is recognizing the ability to give something that matches who you are and what you believe is important, and then giving that gift to someone else in way that is a rich blessing to them in ways they didn’t expect.

Prayer It is with great joy that I hear of people who tell me they include the staff and students of LCES in their regular prayer time. We thank you for remembering us in this way.

Money We’ve been blessed with financial means to take care of some pressing needs in our school that our operating budget wasn’t expecting. Thanks for choosing to bless us and our mission.

Time It is one of the greatest gifts we are given by volunteers who offer the work of their helping hands in support of who we are and we what we stand for.

Let’s rejoice together!  We’re also thankful for students sharing their gifts and talents. This Wednesday our students will share the story in word and song of the very best gift ever given.

May God bless our students, families, and staff with a joyous and safe Christmas break after this exciting week. God has great things in store for LCES in 2020!

SJ

Waiting at Advent at Our Christian School

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.

We make a quick transition to Christmas in modern culture. Once Remembrance Day is through, we hastily take out the special food, music, and Christmas finery. By January the 1^st, most of it is gone and boxes are brought back down to the store room and the Christmas tunes are packed away for another year.

Our family has been reading about the end of the nations of Israel and Judah just before the 400 years that are called the dark or silent years. It’s an intensely sad read as generations of unfaithfulness of God’s people led to being conquered, and nearly snuffed out by neighbouring nations. By the rivers of Babylon a tiny remnant wept over the demise of the temple and the waywardness of God’s people. And they waited. And God was silent.

This is the leadup to John the Baptist, Mary’s angel visit, and then the shepherd’s nighttime angel chorus visit. God with us! What a joy that we can point our students at LCES to the wider, amazing story of God loving us so much that he came to Bethlehem, and has promised that he will came come again. I’m thankful for Christian education which can remind our students in very real ways that they are part of that story and will share in its joyful ending. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

SJ

Deliveries and Imagination at Our Christian School

Deliveries come to the school nearly every day. Today I had the joy of bringing a special delivery of a large envelope addressed to the SK class. Spot the dog had “written” to the class and he had sent an enthusiastic letter encouraging students to write back. He promised to write the students back if they wrote to him. Some students happily and willingly went along with the teacher’s imaginative ploy to get them to practice writing even though they seemed to understand it wasn’t real, while others seemed to be quite convinced this was all very true.

Upon returning to my desk, I thought this through. Loads of fun to be sure. Was it deception, or fun with imagination?  I’m pretty sure it is the second option, but it made me wonder where the line is between imaginative play and leading students away from the truth. I remember reading a short story with a grade eight class years ago about an imaginary trip to the moon. Poverty gave no space for a family holiday, so the father gave the gift of a what the very young children believed to be an actual real trip complete with home made shuttle, space suits, moon rocks, and a rolling screen outside the “window.” A wise student summarized the story with a question: “What is better, the truth which brings a tear, or a lie that brings a smile?”

As a parent, I know it isn’t that simple. We want our children to know and love God’s truth. Does that crowd out imagination and willing suspension of disbelief? Matthew 18 warns about causing children to go astray by willful choice, however imagination is clearly a gift that God gives us all – especially in the precious years of childhood.

I'm thankful for wise LCES teachers who embrace truth and imagination at once. 

SJ