Simply Delighfful Creations - A Photo Journal

The ladies in our home have been baking up a storm over the last year.  So much so that there are now even official business cards: Simple Delights – cupcakes, chocolates, cookies and more by Maria and Christina Harer.  Here are a few photos of the tasty creations.

M&M cupcakes one of the first fondant creations

Sample box from the open house “tasting” in November

These two aliens eventually found their way to youth group

The first baby shower cake



Way better than the Starbucks cake pops

First cake made with the new KitchenAid mixer

Fun animal cupcakes taken to an after church lunch

One of the entries for the local cupcake competition

Bunches of Christmas cookies



Checker board cake served to young adults one Sunday afternoon

An Early Thanksgiving Day Story

The family of Corrie ten Boom was from Holland where they ran a watchmakers shop.  They used their shop as a front to hide Jews during the war and were eventually imprisoned in a German concentration camp.  Corrie was the only member of the family to survive the ordeal.  I first met her as a child as my aunt told me stories of her life.  Later on Corrie was sent a written invitation to visit our mountain home for a retreat get-a-way.   Sadly, for us her world speaking schedule did not permit it.  The following is one of her stories of Thanksgiving.   
The move to permanent quarters came the second week of October.  We were marched, ten abreast, along a wind cinder avenue and then into a narrower street of barracks.  Several times the column halted while numbers were read out-names were never used at Ravensbruck.  At last Betsie’s and mine were called: “Prisoner 66729, Prisoner 66730.”  We stepped out of line with a dozen or so others and stared at the long gray front of Barracks 28….A door in the center let us into a large room where two hundred or more women bent over knitting needles.  On tables between them were piles of woolen socks in army gray.

On either side doors opened into two still larger rooms-by far the largest dormitories we had yet seen.  Betsie and I followed a prisoner-guide through the door at the right.  Because of the broken windows the room was in semi-twilight.  Our noses told us, first, that the place was filthy: somewhere plumbing had backed up, the bedding was soiled and rancid.  Then as our eyes adjusted to the gloom, we saw that there were no individual beds at all, but great square piers stacked three high and wedged side by side and end to end with only an occasional narrow aisle slicing through. 

We followed our guide single file-the aisle was not wide enough for two-fighting back the claustrophobia of these platforms rising everywhere above us.  The tremendous room was nearly empty of people; they must have been out on various work crews.  At last she pointed to a second tier in the center of a large block.  To reach it we had to stand on the bottom level, haul ourselves up, and then crawl across three other straw platforms to reach the one that we would share with-how many?  The deck above us was too close to let us sit up.  We lay back, struggling against the nausea that swept over us from the reeking straw.  We could hear the women who had arrived with us finding their places.

Suddenly I sat up, striking my head on the cross-slat above.  Something had pinched my leg.

“Fleas!” I cried.  “Betsie, the place is swarming with them!”

We scrambled across the intervening platforms, heads low to avoid another bump, dropped down to the aisle, and edged our way to the patch of light.

Here! And here is another one!”  I wailed.   “Betsie, how can we live in such a place?”

“Show us.  Show us how.”  It was said so matter of factly it took me a second to realize she was praying.  More and more the distinction between prayer and the rest of life seemed to be vanishing for Betsie.

“Corrie!” she said excitedly.  “He gives us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does!  In the Bible this morning.  Where was it?  Read that part again!”

I glanced down the long dim aisle to make sure no guard was in sight, then drew the Bible from its pouch.  “It was in First Thessalonians,” I said.  We were on our third complete reading of the New Testament since leaving Scheveningen.  In the feeble light I turned the pages.  “Here it is: ‘Comfort the frightened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.  See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all…’”  it seemed written expressly to Ravensbruck.

Go on,” said Betsie.  “That wasn’t all.”

“Oh, yes: ‘…to one another and to all.  Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus – ‘”

“That’s it Corrie!  That’s His answer. ‘Give thanks in all circumstances!’ That’s what we can do.  We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this barracks!”

I stared at her then around me at the dark, foul-aired room.

“Such as?” I said.

“Such as being assigned here together.”

I bit my lip.  “Oh, yes, Lord Jesus!”

"Such as what you’re holding in your hands.”

I looked down at the Bible.  “Yes!  Thank You, dear Lord, that there was no inspection when we entered here!  Thank You for all the women, here in this room, who will meet you in these pages.”

“Yes,” said Betsie.  “Thank You for the over-crowding here.  Since we’re packed so close, that many more will hear!”  She looked at me expectantly.  “Corrie!”  she prodded.

“Oh all right.  Thank You for the jammed, crammed, stuffed, packed, suffocating crowds.”

“Thank You,” Betsie went on serenely, “for the fleas and for – “

The fleas!  This was too much.  “Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”

"'Give thanks in all circumstances’,” she quoted.  “It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’  Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.”

And so we stood between piers of bunks and gave thanks for fleas.  But this time I was sure Betsie was wrong….

One evening I got back to the barracks late from a wood-gathering foray outside the walls.  A light snow lay on the ground and it was hard to find the sticks and twigs with which a small stove was kept going in each room.  Betsie was waiting for me, as always, so that we could wait through the food line together.  Her eyes were twinkling. 

“You’re looking extraordinarily pleased with yourself,” I told her.

“You know we’ve never understood why we had so much freedom in the big room,”   she said.  “Well – I found out.”

That afternoon, she said, there’d been confusion in the knitting group about sock sizes and they’d asked the supervisor to come and settle it.

"But she wouldn’t.  She wouldn’t step through the door and neither would the guards.  And you know why?”

Betsie could not keep the triumph from her voice: “Because of the fleas!  That’s what she said, ‘That place is crawling with fleas!’”

My mind rushed back to our first hour in this place. I remembered Betsie’s bowed head, remembered her thanks to God for creatures I could see no use for.

Photos taken at Tamarack - "The Best of West Virginia

Age of Unpredictability

I have now reached the age of unpredictability.  Today is my birthday and I choose the Wild Bean over Outback, Red Lobster or Olive Garden.  Maybe it’s because local is better or it’s the atmosphere of the coffee house culture.  Maybe it’s just that we fit in so well with all the other eccentrics who congregate here, but maybe it’s just the unpredictability of it all.  We chose a table in the display window that gives us plenty of light and settle in for an afternoon of bean burgers and house blend.  Very nice it you don’t mind feeling like a human manikin. 

The last time I recall sitting in this particular spot was with my friend Hamlet after a wedding reception at Carnegie Hall.  His wife was away for the weekend leaving him to care for all the home duties and the kids.  He must have really needed some extra energy by the time Saturday evening rolled around because he drank five or six espressos…and arrived early for Sunday school the next morning. 

Today at the café I’m surrounded by some friends – Rich, Eugene, Henri and Nathan.  As is often the case at birthdays in our family, everyone offers some kind words, encouragements and affirmations.  Diana’s sister and I have added the fun of “mental gifts” to the list.  They are flamboyant and super inexpensive.  Rich starts out, “I hope you see the faithfulness of God in everything He has made.  I hope you learn to trust that all of this is His care sworn to you.  But mostly, I hope you know Jesus through whom God has wildly and ferociously loved us.”

The others chime in, “It is very important for you to realize that perhaps the greater part of God’s work in this world may go unnoticed.”  And, “When we submit our lives to what we read in Scripture, we find we’re being led not to see God in our stories but to see our stories in God’s.  God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves.”  Thanks guys!

The girls left for a youth retreat this morning, so we celebrated on Friday instead.  It was great, a double dipping of sorts.  The focus for the day was the food – biscuits and gravy, authentic Indian, Ben & Jerry’s.  It’s always about the food on special occasions it seems.  Which is just as it should be since the table is a place of intimacy.  It’s a barometer of what’s going on in family life.  We ate hardily and enjoyed the time together.  As evening came upon us so did a steady rain.  Maria and I decided to take a walk anyway.  We got drenched and laughed all the way - a  perfect birthday celebration.  Got to love the age of unpredictability.   

In His Own Words

One of my dearest, closest friends remains in ICU after being struck by a car on July 4^th while returning to his van after a fireworks show. Please pray for Kim and for his family.  

Some men inspire you by their quiet, reflective, honest pursuit of God.  Kim has been such a man in my life. In my eyes he is a spiritual giant.  In his own eyes he is “one beggar telling another where to find food.”  The unforced rhythms of grace in his life have gently pointed this beggar to the path of prayer, to greater dependence on God, to the outstanding power of the gospel.  While we were in Mexico he wrote, “My encouragement to you would be just keep preaching the gospel to yourself and others. It truly is the power of God, and our protection against the enemy of our souls.”

Over a decade ago Kim had brain surgery, and two weeks later he gave a message at our church.   In it he said:

“We need to live today with intensity because today is all we have. God has shown me that we need to take the gift of today and live it.  Live it with as much joy and live it to invest as much in the kingdom as possible.  We have today.  We don’t have tomorrow.  We worry about tomorrow.  We plan for tomorrow but we don’t have tomorrow.  No matter what is happening in our lives, God has given us the opportunity to find deep pleasure and satisfaction in Him.  But we’ve got to live today.    

 “The God that we serve is not a tame, safe God.  We cannot determine where He is going.  We’ve got to quit trying to say where He is going, and we’ve just got to hold on.  Hold on for dear life and be with Him. 

Weaknesses are a gift from God.  Rather than hiding from them we need to learn to exploit our weaknesses. God gives you and me, God gives us as a body weaknesses so that we understand how much we need to depend on Him.  If we didn’t have weakness, we wouldn’t depend on God, we wouldn’t pray.  We need to learn to quit hiding from them and quit hiding our weaknesses from each other and we need to say, “Hey, I’ve got a weakness.  I’ve got a problem.  I’ve got a crisis...We don’t need to be shrinking back from them, we need to acknowledge them.

Learn to be persistent in prayer…Throughout the last couple of weeks God has shown me how basic prayer needs to become in our lives and how basic He wants it to become.  Most of the time we see problems and we try to design a solution for the problem.  God has shown me that’s not what He wants us to do.  When we see a problem the first thing we need to do and the continual thing we need to do is ask God to solve the problem…When God solves the problem we don’t have to go tinker with it.  He does such amazing things when He solves a problem.  And that’s the lesson of prayer that I believe God wants us to learn.”

 When we returned from Mexico, Kim and I met one early Tuesday morning for coffee and to catch up.  We are still catching up and building up two years later.  I always walk away with things better aligned to God’s perspective.  Sometimes he’ll give me a book title to consider like Prodigal God by Tim Keller or You Gotta Keep Dancin by Tim Hansel.  Occasionally I’ll even write out some comment he makes.  Here’s one I came across this week, "I think it’s real critical for people to stop and thank the Lord for everything he’s given…Start with thanksgiving and make things come back to God. Starting out with thanksgiving makes all the difference. This particular weakness brings us back to God in the way of deeper dependence on him." 

So, his words bring us full circle to where we find ourselves in this very moment – in need and in full dependence on God.

Gracious Freeing Truth

Jesus connected with people. He was a friend to those formerly demon possessed, religious leaders, prostitutes, fisherman, tax collectors as well as to the multitudes. His manner was a divine manner. His spirit was a gracious spirit. Yet, He did not withhold the pointed truth that each person needed to penetrate their heart and bring them freedom.

To Woman at the Well – “Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’”...and…“You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

To Nicodemus – “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him”...and..."In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’”

 To the Woman Caught in Adultery –   “Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’”… and…“Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’”

To the multitudes – “Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’… On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?’…From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” 

To the Invalid of Thirty-Eight Years – “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, ‘Do you want to get well?’”…and…“Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.’”

Jesus lived in this dynamic balance of grace and truth.  “We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” It’s a paradoxical truth we could all use.

Randy Alcorn highlights this, “The apparent conflict that exists between grace and truth isn’t because they’re incompatible, but because we lack perspective to resolve their paradox.  The two are interdependent.  We should never approach truth except in a spirit of grace, or grace except in a spirit of truth."

Diana's Checkerboard Cake