Wednesday, March 18, 2015

RISE AND SHINE

“Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”  Ephesians 5:14b

When I read this passage I hear is the voice of my father saying, “Rise and shine”.  Like most teenagers all I wanted to do was to sleep in on Saturday mornings, especially this time of year.  My brother and I slept in a large room over our garage that was poorly insulated, and had only one small heating vent.  Snuggled up in flannel sheets under about 5 blankets it took a lot of will-power to get out of bed and get dressed in our frigid bedroom.  Things looked up as soon as I got to the hallway, because I would be met with enticing odors of pancakes, waffles, or Dad’s famous potatoes and eggs.  We needed a good breakfast, because it would inevitably be followed by a day of work outside. 
This time of year, late February, we would be making maple syrup.  On our three acre lot, in the woods behind us, and in our neighbors lot (with their permission) we would tap about 100 maple trees.  We hand drilled holes in the trees about three feet off the ground, tapped in a spout, and hung up a pail.  As the weather got up above freezing, sap would run up the trees in the day time, and then back down as it cooled below freezing at night.  Each time the sap ran, we got some in the buckets.  Maple tree sap has a mildly sweet “green” taste. I enjoyed taking a sip once in a while.  It takes about 50 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup.  We would collect the sap several times during the week if it was running well.  Then on Saturdays we would build a wood fire under the boiler, which was a shallow pan about 3 feet wide and 6 feet long.  You can’t imagine how wonderful it smelled as it boiled!  By Saturday evening it would be down almost to the bottom, so we would pour it off, take it to an old stove in the basement, and finish boiling it down to the proper sugar content.  Dad liked to get a high sugar content, so we invariably had maple sugar candy forming on the bottom of the canning jars after a month or two.
Yes, it was a lot of work, but no, I don’t look back on those Saturdays as child abuse.  It was fun, and those times are some of my fondest childhood memories.  If I had a large yard with maple trees, I would make it today.  But the main reason those times mean so much to me was that they were times working with Dad.  Including my brother and me in his work was one of my Father’s love languages.  He included us in whatever he was doing.  He loved to teach us what he knew.  He wanted to help us grow up into competent, self-assured men.  And Saturdays weren't always work days, we also got to join him hunting and fishing. 


I think one of God’s love languages is including us in what He is doing.  Isn't that what Jesus did with His disciples?  He took them with Him as He taught, healed, and proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom.  He showed them how to fish for men, and He patiently taught them what it means to be godly.  Yes, the work of the Kingdom is often hard work, just like making maple syrup, but the reward is that we get to join God in His work, and learn His ways.  He teaches us how to serve.  He teaches us how to listen and follow the quiet voice of the Spirit.  He gently corrects our bad attitudes, pride, and self-centered ways.  And best of all, we get to be with Him through it all, and see in His eyes the love of a Father who loves to be with His children.  Rise and shine.