Faith

Where Is Our Hope?

May 21, 2020 by Carey Jane Clark

Rest in God alone, O my soul, for my hope comes from Him.
Psalm 62:5

It has been a long haul. We are weary and we are ready for change. We see a light at the end of the tunnel. Maybe just a glimmer, but it’s there.

And on social media, I’m starting to see a different kind of post. There’s hope.

And trust, me, I think hope is just what we need right now. For many of us, hope is all we’ve had for months. At the home of Hope-Filled Fiction, I’m going to be the last person to tell you not to hope!

But be careful where your hope is placed. The kind of sentiment I’m seeing champions the power of the human spirit. We can do it. We will rebuild.

But take a moment and consider how we got here. What we all said this was about. For many, like me, this forced rest has been about re-focusing our attention on God. For taking time to get our priorities straight and to center our attention on the one who is our Help, our Hope, the Maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 124:8).

So let us not forget then as we emerge from this crisis, that our hope must remain in Him. Our hope cannot be in the power of the human spirit. That may well be what brought us where we are!

Take a look at Isaiah 9:10 from The Passion Translation. This verse has often been quoted as our society emerged from a crisis. It was, in fact, quoted after 9/11.

Our brick walls may have crumbled,
but we will rebuild them with dressed stones.
Invading armies may have cut down our sycamore trees,
but we will plant cedars in their place!

Sounds encouraging, doesn’t it? The champion cry of a downtrodden people, refusing to be put down. But it was arrogance.

Examine the context. Read this verse together with the verse before it (emphasis mine).

And all the people of Ephraim and Samaria knew of it.
Their hearts filled with pride and they arrogantly boasted,
“Our brick walls may have crumbled,
but we will rebuild them with dressed stones.
Invading armies may have cut down our sycamore trees,
but we will plant cedars in their place!”

A few verses later, in verse 13, we see why.

For the people did not repent and turn to the one who struck them
or seek the Lord Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies.

I want us to rebuild. I want new life to spring up where the old has died. I want us to be with our families and our friends again. Trust me I want that! And I want to see our economy thrive once more.

But our hope must not be in our own strength, abilities, wisdom, or intelligence. It must not be in the “power of the human spirit.” That power, after all, was placed in us by our Creator. Our hope must be in the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth.

If there must be a new normal, let it be this: hope in Him.

Finding the Christ in Christmas

December 12, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

When we moved from Canada to China, there were some things we just couldn’t pack. One was our treasured nativity scene. The one we use in our family had been a gift to me when I was a teenager–something I had asked for for Christmas one year. My father had helped with (read: mostly did by himself) the construction of the stable and all our family members painted the ceramic figures. It has survived a number of moves and the toddlerhoods of three children.

But I didn’t think it was up to a trip to China. And before we moved to this apartment, we wouldn’t have had the storage space to keep it.

So we don’t have a nativity set. Once, when shopping in July or some other random month, I spotted a scene in a store here. At the time, I was astonished to see it. Don’t ask me why I didn’t snatch it up on the spot. I ask myself that now. Now that I have spent two afternoons scouring that market and another with a picture of the desired item, asking at each store, describing the item and what it was. Each time I named the baby in the manger, the shop owner would look at me, shake his or head and report they hadn’t seen anything like that anywhere. One went so far as to tell me, “Chinese people don’t like that kind of thing.”

And indeed, while you can find any number of Christmas trees, singing Santa Clauses, reindeer, flashing lights and glitter, there is no Christ child.

So today, we put aside the homeschool agenda, whipped up a bunch of salt dough, and we each made our own salt dough nativity scene–some with more success than others–items that large can crack in the baking process, and Sweetpea’s Mary didn’t fare so well.

But here are some pictures of Sprout’s little family:

Pumpkin took a great deal of time perfecting his little figures, and in the end, didn’t get time to paint them, but he plans to do that tomorrow:

We found our recipe for salt dough at Allrecipes.com:

4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix ingredients together and form into desired shapes, then bake in oven for 1 hour. I would add that smaller items should be checked before that time. Larger items may need longer.

We really put the salt dough to the test with this project. Pumpkin cooked his figures on their backs, and the bottoms became rounded, so we sawed off a little very carefully with a serrated knife and then used a cheese grater to sand off some extra parts. Eventually they were all able to stand on their own. The shepherd was supposed to hold a staff, and Pumpkin made a hole for that purpose, but the salt dough swelled a little in the oven and the hole all but closed up. He’s going to try a glue gun after painting.

We’re going to make a cardboard stable for Pumpkin’s set. Sprout opted to keep hers on her bedside table.

All in all, we’re calling the project a success, and we’re all happy to have found a way to keep Christ in Christmas.

- Carey Clark

Advent Traditions

December 1, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

Family traditions and memory-making are very important to me. When we moved to China originally, I worked feverishly to finish up my Creative Memories albums and I dragged three giant albums of pictures here with us, much to JavaMan’s chagrin (it meant he could pack less coffee).

But I haven’t regretted it–and JavaMan would agree. It’s been wonderful to have those albums full of memories. Our kids regularly pull them out and have us recount the stories behind the pictures. Each of them has a special memory or two of our life B.C. (before China).

Some things didn’t make the cut when we were packing, and that goes for some of our favorite Christmas things–things that made up traditions we kept each year. It was tough leaving them out. In addition, some things are harder to do here, like Truth in the Tinsel, which we did last year. Although we’d love to do it again, the supplies are just too hard to come by here.

One thing we have done every year, however, is read one of the trilogy of Advent books by Arnold Ytreeide:

Jotham’s Journey
Bartholomew’s Passage
Tabitha’s Travels

This year, we’re using Bartholomew’s Passage. Each story features a first-century child. All the childrens’ lives intersect, and at the conclusion of each story, the children find themselves witness to a special event in Bethlehem, although each child sees the event from a slightly different perspective.

The stories are exciting–there is a cliffhanger at the end of each day’s reading–and there is a brief meditation at the end of each chapter that gives a chance to pause and think about the true meaning of the season as we celebrate Advent: the coming of the Savior.

This is the first year we’re also going to use the Jesse Tree. Since all the activities are free and printable from Ann Voskamp’s blog, it made the perfect substitute for the ones we left behind back “home.”

Advent begins tomorrow, December 2. What will you do to celebrate?

- Carey Clark

Five Minute Friday: Identity

May 11, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

The topic for today’s Five Minute Friday (with Gypsy Mama) is an intriguing one for me. I can’t believe I’m going to tackle it in only five minutes, but here goes:

GO.

The idea of identity has always been a tough one for me to get my head around. I’ve never been able to identify as just one role. Even when it came to putting my blog together, I struggled. Am I a homeschool mom or a writer? A mommy blogger or an author with a webpage? And now that we’re living here in China, am I a Canadian? An expat? What or who do I identify with?

In chatting with an American friend this week we discussed how Canadians are quick to identify their non-American-ness. Wherever we go here, we hear people discussing us and they’ll often make assumptions about where we’re from. We’re always quick to correct them and let them know, “No, I’m not American. I’m Canadian.” It’s that distinctive Canadian need to be distinct. Our American friend didn’t understand why, but every Canadian I know would relate in an instant.

But are any of these things my true identity? Is this where I find my fulfillment? No.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3

It is in Christ that my identity makes sense. I’m not a split personality, straddling the worlds of writer and homeschool mommy–I’m a complete person in Him, the streams of His creativity and love flowing out from me in more than one direction. I am who He created me to be.

STOP.

- Carey Clark