May Open Spaces 20.5

Open Spaces

By John W. Vander Velden

Vol.: 20.5

I’m writing this short piece on Memorial Day and remembering those that have served, willing to sacrifice themselves for something greater than any one of us. I think, particularly during this difficult time, that each of us should think about those that have given the “ultimate measure” on behalf of millions of people they had never met. They did what they thought they must for a community in which you and I are part. I feel it is important that we too are willing to do our part for the good of others.

Their sacrifice should remind us that we do not live alone, isolated and self-serving. Too easily we slide into the, what about ME attitude, that we forget about the others, the THEM. Have we forgotten that the ME is indeed one of the THEM, and also among the THEM are those we love and care about. I doubt that many of those we honor on this day had forgotten. Perhaps that is just another reason to remember them as heroes.

For 2020 the holiday carries a somber difference. Social distancing has required that we, for this year, face Memorial Day in ways different than any other time in our lifetime. Those changes should not change the significance of the holiday. Rather as I stated before it should heighten our resolve to straighten our own shoulders and do what needs to be done. For our actions will affect our friends, neighbors, family members for good or ill.

Now is not the time to point fingers or assign blame. It is a time to face the sacrifices needed to accomplish a mighty goal. God has not abandoned, nor will He ever leave us no matter what the future holds. This crisis WILL pass, and if we work together we will reach its conclusion stronger and better than before. But if we pout and shout, “poor me,” without considering how the vulnerable must face these difficult days, then the fractures within our society will only widen.

Is that the legacy we wish to leave in the memory of our fallen heroes?

I would hope not.

Covid-19 will pass. We will endure these months. Years from now we will tell our descendants about 2020. What that story will be will depend upon our actions TODAY, TOMMOROW, and the WEEKS ahead. Take courage dear friends and remember the lessons learned from the brave we honor on this day.

God’s peace be with you, today, tomorrow, and all the days ahead.

John
Author of the Misty Creek Saga

April Open Spaces 20.4

Open Spaces

Vol.: 20.4

By John W. Vander Velden

April 22, 2020

Greetings, how are you holding up?

During this time of unprecedented events, things are not the way they were just a couple of months ago. It seems most of us fall into two categories, those deemed essential and those not.

Yet none of us march onward in the same pattern that had been our lives. Perhaps you are among those that continue to work. On one hand you are grateful for being able to earn your salary, but you are also concerned about those you work with, or others that pass a bit too close, or those you need to serve. Do you work in health care? Do you fear that you might bring this illness home?

Of course you take precautions...But.

Or are you among those asked to remain in your home. The mail hasn’t stopped, and bills continue to come, don’t they? While you remain within your home, perhaps surrounded by others of your family, you wonder how long this situation must continue, and will you be able to pay your obligations?

The whole world seems shifted.

Have faith dear friends, this situation will not go on forever. Yet even so we wonder what the “new normal” will be when Covid-19 is but a memory.

Hold your head up for you have faced changes before. You have the strength and the ability to go boldly forward. Remember how frightening it was to graduate from high school. Attending classes had been such a large part of your life. Why even summer break was tempered by the knowledge that classes would began again in August or September. And though, with your graduation, you might not have known what lay in your immediate future, and how you would get through them, weren’t you excited about the prospects? The unknowns of life are a bit scary, but remember we are not alone...never alone.

For even the most of the home bound have their family, and those that do not can reach out to others. Think about the ways we can communicate with one another. At our fingertips are access points to the world beyond. Technology our grandparents couldn’t imagine. Now is a great time to reach out to friends half a world away, or family that may be nearby but have drifted out of touch. So reach out...do it.

And know that you are not the only one that face these difficult times. We, all of us, one way or the other, are like you, dealing day by day with this crisis. But on those times you feel most alone, never forget God is there with you, closer than your next breath.

As for this writer, my life has been altered less than most. And among those changes is a bit more time. Not a great deal but a few hours a week. I have used that “extra” time for two things. One: keyboarding... or writing. Even my stumbling fingers have been able to add pages to my current project.  Two: I have taken some of time to learn a bit of “new stuff”. Dabbled a bit in video conferencing in case the need comes up, and posted my first video, a virtual Author’s Event, on Facebook.

I will leave it to those that have viewed those phone filmed minutes to decide if I had been effective. Jackie was surprised by my boldness. In truth so was I. But I hope to try it again...and soon.

So the author part of me remains busy. And even as the first draft, of project that presently has my focus, approaches 350 pages, I look forward to the next step at its completion. For my mind is filled with stories demanding to be told, and as long as God gives me breath and the energy I hope to share some of them with you one day.

It seems I have babbled TOO long so I must end this letter to you my dear friends. I thank each of you that have read Misty Creek or Elizabeth’s Journey. I want to thank you for the positive words you have given, whether in person, on social media, by mail, or by e-mail. THANK YOU ALL!

Take care and stay well,

Blessings,

John  

    

A Morning's Surprise

A Morning’s Surprise          

By John W. Vander Velden

Imagine you were one of those that took care of the details. There’s always something that needs to be done and somebody’s GOT TO DO IT. Maybe no one asked you to. Maybe because everyone knew someone ALWAYS took care of the details. You never sought the lime light. You didn’t need any kind of honor. You hadn’t consider it a big deal, you just helped take care of the details. You helped with the minor stuff, or at least you considered it minor stuff.

But this morning it was a bit different.

He was more than a friend, the man that is on your mind this morning. You rise early. The sun is just now breaking the horizon. You walk with another through the wet grass hurrying. He had not lasted long hanging there, and yet those hours seemed an eternity. That was Friday, and things were rushed...then. The Sabbath starts at sundown. There are rules that MUST be followed. There were procedures, proper things that MUST be done. But there wasn’t time Friday.

You think of how fortunate someone donated a new tomb. And your friend had been taken there. His body is waiting and details needed to be done.

You were not considered among his inner most circle, but that didn’t mean you hadn’t been near. It didn’t mean he didn’t know you...or love you. Because you know he did.

There had been political wrangling going on. You had no idea of the things set in motion. Of Roman Soldiers sent to guard a tomb that has Pilot’s seal. If you did perhaps you would not have been wondering how the great stone that blocked the entrance could be moved. For that was a large part of your morning’s talk.  

But you were shocked when in the early light of that morning and saw that the stone had been rolled aside.

Now what would your reaction be. Would you have stopped and said, “well, I think this is close enough.” Or would curiosity have drawn you forward. Now remember you haven’t had two thousand years and the gospel reports to guide your actions, to shape how you would react facing this surprise of the morning.

The event is recorded in all four gospels and though there are slight differences the core of the story remains constant. Those that came did not expect to find an empty tomb. How could they. They had witnessed the crucifixion, seen the centurion pierce their friend’s side. You had no doubt that he was dead. And after all you were just someone that took care of the details.

What thoughts would have passed through your head...right then, those first few moments? Grave robbers? Perhaps. But I know the concept of your dear friend returning to life would not likely been you’re your first thought. It certainly wouldn’t have been mine.

But we are familiar with the gospel stories, and in them, you or one of the others that had come that early Sunday morning, saw something remarkable. Imagine how you would respond to facing one or more men in brilliant white? Would you accept their words that your dear friend, Jesus of Nazareth, was alive? Could your mind comprehend the truth so plainly told? Could you accept that with Jesus the unfeasible was not really impossible?  Did your mind unravel the things Jesus had told you, to recognize that he had indeed risen?

Did that morning’s surprise fill you with dread...or fill you with joy? Or both?

But you were not there that morning, were you? No, you, me, and everyone have had those two thousand years and the accounts in each of the gospels to teach us. It is Easter once again, and the light of the resurrection has been shown into the hearts of believers innumerable. And because we believe we are not faced with the morning’s surprise, except the improbability that God would sacrifice His Son for the likes of us.

That is the biggest surprise of my morning...today...and every morning. That God loved me that much...loved me just as I am.

So on this Easter, an Easter different than any we have experienced. Take time to read the gospel, take time to pray, take time contemplate the infinite vastness of our God and the boundlessness of His love.

For Jesus remains alive. He lives. Today, tomorrow, and forever.

He saves each of us in ways we cannot understand. And it’s OK that we don’t understand the whole of it. For the surprise on that Easter morning verifies the truth. The truth that Jesus, is the Son of God. And in that truth we know, Jesus is the only person that could, as unfeasible as it might seem, rescue us.

And He has!

Have a blessed Easter,

John

(800 Words) 4-10-2020

  

Palm Branches on the Road

Palm Branches on the Road      

By John Vander Velden

Each year when Palm Sunday came we would discuss the event in our Adult Sunday School class. As the class’s teacher I had the privilege of choosing each week’s topic and I love the story. It’s so human.

So this year we are to spend time separated, physically at least, from each other, I thought I would take some time and pass along my thoughts on this Sunday the beginning of Holy Week. Bear with me.

Jesus was coming to town.

The town was Jerusalem and this person, Jesus of Nazareth, is coming to the very center of the Jewish faith, for the Passover. You’ll find the text in Matthew 21 or John 12. Take some time to read them, I’ll not cover the actual text here.

But by that time a young rabbi, or teacher had gained a great deal of fame. In a world before TV, radio, or the internet, word had gotten around about this carpenter’s son from a village up north. Stories of his speaking to the masses, of changing water to wine, of healing people from their illnesses, of freeing others from the demons that possessed them, even a story of raising a man from the dead. The name of Jesus was tied to so many events that by word of mouth thousands had heard of Him.

And he was coming to town!

So Jesus comes down the road riding on a colt of a donkey. Doesn’t seem impressive does it. Where’s the pomp. Where’s the circumstance. A donkey! But it fit with a prophecy and the folks new it. Now the city of Jerusalem had swelled with the religious masses. It was Passover and if possible you went to the temple for Passover. So Jerusalem was filled with not only locals but with many from all over.

So the crowds must have heard for they were excited, you see Jesus was coming to town!

So if we read the gospel we see there was a great deal of hoopla as Jesus approached the city. Everyone is excited because surely this man, this Jesus, is the Messiah. They have been waiting for the Messiah for a long time. They’re wait is over.

Impressive isn’t it. Yes, it certainly was. And the religious leaders noticed.

Many might say that the triumphant entrance into Jerusalem was the pinnacle of His ministry.  But we who know the “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say, know it just isn’t so. As a writer it might be called the pre-climax, perhaps a hint of things to come.

So how can things go from mass adoration on one day to the crowd demanding his execution in less than a week? It’s simple really. The crowds were human. A cheap excuse, perhaps, and I don’t mean to excuse them, really. Just to clear the muddied waters.

For generations the people of Judea had anticipated the Messiah. One empire after another came in to dominate their lives, bringing odd cultures, odd laws, demanding odd payments. Times they had revolted. Times they had a few years of self-rule. But by and large the Jews were under the thumb of SOMEBODY. They interpreted the words of the prophets to mean that the Messiah would come and set them free. Free from Rome in this case. He would be a warrior king and with his authority and God’s power Judea and all the lands promised them, would be restored. David’s Kingdom would be reestablished forever.

Doesn’t sound like the Jesus I know, does it sound like your Jesus?

And that was the problem.

Maybe Jesus was the Messiah, but he wasn’t the Messiah they wanted!

Crucify him, crucify him!

Yes, there was some political wrangling mixed in the change of the masses opinion, but the fact that this carpenter’s son did not fit the job description provided the fuel for the fire.

We can understand can’t we? Like I said they were human.

And so are we.  

Now I shear off from the past and bring Palm Sunday and Holy Week into the present. What kind of Messiah are you looking for? Does Jesus fit?  Or do we bend the Son of God to fit what we want Him to be?

Do we take Jesus’s message of unconditional love and God’s forgiveness and decide who qualifies and who does not.

    

Have we shaped the gospel to say what we think it should mean?  Ouch!

These are questions we should ask ourselves every day, but especially ask them when we think about the story of Palm Sunday and the week that follows.

“For God so loved the world,” (loved the world doesn’t necessarily mean he has always liked it), “that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (This is the sacrifice we must understand.) “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:16, 17 (NIV)

This is what Christmas―Palm Sunday―Easter is all about.

And that is why it matters.

So as we sit in our individual homes,  know that God’s actions are for each of us, that Jesus is the Messiah, not necessarily the one we may want, but the one we absolutely need.

With God’s Blessings, and Christ’s love,

John

(893 Words) 4-5-2020

Open Spaces Vol. 20.3

Open Spaces        3-27-2020

Vol. 20.3

I don’t think any of us would have, a year ago, imagined the place we find ourselves at the end of this month. So as we face Covid-19, let us each do our part but not live in fear. Don’t get me wrong there is plenty to be afraid of in this life, and this virus is one of them. However scary as this might seem it is not the end of the world. Friends we will get through this if we all work together.

So most of us are penned up at home. Fact is I normally am, well for the most part. I have given up a few regular outing like going to church, which is a big deal. But by and large I’m working from home or around the farm. There’s always stuff that needs to be done, you know fixing stuff, yada, yada, yada. Soon yard work will do its share to occupy my days. Life goes on doesn’t it?

And then there’s my writing. With all my author’s events put on hold I have a bit more time to assault the keyboard. If you knew how badly I type you would understand that my computer is the victim here. But none the less, I pound, backspace, correct, pound a bit more, and eventually a page is finished. I won’t share what I’m working on but it is enough to tell you I am more than half way through a first draft.

Please don’t hold your breath, or continue to ask me, politely, as you always do, when it will be finished. This book which I am currently working on is a very LONG way from completion. I expect it will take at least THREE YEARS before it reaches publication. That’s 1095 days friends, and I will have to push things to get it done in 2023. But I will finish this project, if God wants me to complete it, and I think He does.

Shifting gears here. Misty Creek and Elizabeth’s Journey have the most wonderful fans. I cannot say how touched this man of modest talent is by the comments I have received. Over and again I have been told how much you have enjoyed these books. The fans of these stories are what pushes me to strive for the very best that I can do. Just the other day someone called to share how much she enjoyed Elizabeth’s Journey. Calls or letters or E-mails like that humble me. I thank God that He has given me this talent, and the determination that keep my fingers, as clumsy as they are, driven to continue.

So as we come to this month few of us will ever forget, know as the days grow longer we will overcome this challenge. Stay safe and well my friends.

Again thank you my friends.

With God’s blessings, Christ’s love, and Holy Spirit’s comfort,

John

Unfinished Tapestry

Unfinished Tapestry          

By John W. Vander Velden

There are times when I look back over the years of my life. I sometimes consider the life I have lived as some intricate piece of fabric...a tapestry perhaps...yet unfinished. So as I think on this I understand that loom continues to work each day, contributing cords old and new to the tapestry which is my life. So I must thank the Lord of the Loom, God, Master of the Universe, Master of my life, for the careful selections of the cords, the strands that come together and make my life. I thank God, not because my tapestry is only bindings of joyful experiences, for it is not. I thank God because even during the most difficult, dark portions of my fabric, even during illness, and pain, even during loss and failure, the loom continues. Thread by thread, cord by cord, line by line, my God has always been there, even those days I do not notice His presence.

Today as I look back upon the fabric of my life, I clearly see an abrupt change. For thirty-one years ago many new cords were added. Strands that twist and flow through each part of my tapestry since that day. Those strands add color. They add strength. They add purpose. They add to me! Who could have foreseen it? Who knew how much events of that day would add to my tapestry? I am confident that the Lord of the Loom knew, and among all that I have to thank God for, which is a grand quantity, I thank him for bringing my beloved into my life and twisting the strands of her tapestry with mine.

So I understand that my tapestry remains incomplete. It will not be finished until the Lord of the Loom stitches the final cords. He will decide if, in the end, my life was good. But I strive to take the cords I have been given, to use them as best as I am able, for I have some influence over how my tapestry grows. For you see the Lord of the Loom gives me freedom to choose. To pick up strands, to lay others aside, a power to shape my life day by day. And yet the loom moves, the tapestry grows.

I thank the fact my tapestry is yet incomplete. I thank my God that opportunities yet lay ahead of me. I thank Jackie for selflessly binding her life with mine thirty- one years ago and each day since.

So I continue to look forward to adding threads to my unfinished tapestry. 

(427 Words) 3-17-2020

Open Spaces

Open Spaces

By John W. Vander Velden

February 29, 2020

Vol.: 20.2

With February as good as behind us, the winter is winding down. Are you ready for spring? I'm not certain I am. Don't get me wrong I’m not a fan of the cold. Frozen pipes and icy roads do no equate to fun times, but spring brings a list of “to dos” of its own. So maybe we should enjoy the season we're in, don’t you think.

I recently participated in a local Author’s Fair, my first. That event was, like so many things lately, a learning experience. I met some interesting people and reestablished a connection with one of my brother’s school chums. He had moved away several years ago and had recently returned to the area. It was good seeing him and meeting his wife.

Things like that remind me how the unexpected happens to us from time to time. Unexpected occurrences can be good or, well, not so good. Things happen. But I have learned that our lives are shaped by how we respond to the events we face. How we handle the expected things, and how we respond to the stuff that comes at us out of the blue. Good stuff and, like I said before, the not so good stuff.

Enough philosophizing for today.

So what does next month have in store for the author part of me? Well, I was asked to speak to a book club. I’m thrilled that The Argos Page Turners chose Misty Creek for their February read. So on March 10th I'll be joining the group to discuss MY book. It's another first for me and I’m excited. Then on the 12th I will be having an Author’s event in the Plymouth, Indiana, Library. Stop by if you’re in the neighborhood. 

So friends I hope February was good for you.  My wish for you and yours is a great month ahead filled with health and happiness. 

Blessings,

John