Sunday's Lesson

My husband goes to church in Australia. The weather is good, the singing is awesome, worship full of life as so many gather together. Our little church here is full of life, music is meaningful and the folks are friendly. But sometimes, just sometimes, we need a little boost in the teaching. We are so very glad to have the internet, where we can go to Hillsong or to People's Church- or even my own brother's church in Winnipeg! This makes the world even smaller than it feels when you are one of the family of God! But on this day, I had two differing messages that told me much of the same thing. Our minister here was talking about how music reaches deep to the soul. The funny thing is, my husband and I were talking about that very thing just before church today. For me, music reaches where often nothing else does. It speaks a language that I understand with my heart. At our little church, we have good music. We have a number of instruments- woodwind and strings- as well as an organ and a lovely grand piano. It blesses my spirit to participate as I often do on the piano. Music speaks to me where sometimes sermons do not. I am sure this is not true for everyone but for me, it matters! So, there is the thought today, the lesson about music speaking to my heart and in my participation, reaching toward the heart of God.
We also discussed in this day the first couple chapters of Exodus. The Israeli midwives of the day gave such great support to the new mothers, that babies were born too quickly for the Egyptian army to kill baby boys. Midwives are the guardians of birth. They are responsible for teaching the new mother all she needs to know to trust the remarkable design within her body, the miracle that is birth. They give her confidence to give birth, to bring forth that new life. Midwives are teachers and protectors. Doulas are a newer idea, however. Back when midwives were part of the fabric of the community, families took responsibility for each other, mothers taught their daughters what to expect and how to become mothers when the time came for them to be so blessed. Women were tasked with helping one another and families were knit together in such a way as this rite of passage taking place within the tapestry of family life. The design of the family in Biblical times often had many wives for one husband- they each had different roles when it came to position in the family itself. But one commonality was that of child raising, brithing together, teaching one another. We have lost so much of this over the last couple of centuries. We don't mark our lives with rites of passage, don't give creedence to these gifts we each have within. In doing so, we don't honour who we were made to be and have abused so much of the design. With this abuse of the design comes confusion about roles and responsibility. Once, there was no confusion about who was responsible to be the primary parent and who was to be the provider. Each took pride in their role and felt good about it. We have confused so much of this, we argue about rights and freedoms, looking at family design as something to be played with and re-designed to fit our whim. When we live within our design and take glory in how we were made, we find satisfaction and joy and are able to give glory to the One Who made us well.
So today, I have had lots to learn and to think about. We have children watching us, listening to us and thinking about how we live out our lives. We have responsibilities to live with integrity and purpose within our unique design. And most of all, we need to be grateful to be who we are and give glory to our master Designer!