Every once in awhile I fall in love with a book. Usually the books I fall in love with, have a story behind them. The author of God’s Echo is Sandy Eisenberg Sasso. Sandy is a rabbi, an author, a mother and a grand mother. Her children’s books are a gift to the world of faith formation. But today I want to talk about her book God’s Echo.

God’s Echo was written for a grandson. In the Jewish tradition, this was a dedicated to her grandson. The gift of God’s Echo is a way of passing on wisdom through the gift of writing. It doesn’t mean we all have to write to our grand children, but it means that when we pass on stories and use our God given strengths to gift our grand kids rather than the latest “must have “ toy, we are teaching as we give. In the case of God’s Echo, Sandy passed on the story of midrash.

Look for a way to share your strengths with your grandkids. Send sewing or a wooden game. Send a poem you wrote or a picture you took and then framed. Send something that taught you! Do you have a story to share about when you were the same age?

Thanks, Sandy for teaching us to be better grand parents.

The faith garden is home to all God’s children-toads-frogs-snakes-bees…well you get the idea. Sometimes these critters, surprise me. Sometimes I surprise them. This toad was actually under a seat cushion to a chair. I lifted the chair and there he was looking at me. We had a good conversation about hiding from the world.

Then there are the frogs that jump into the pond every time you walk close. And the gold fish I always talk about. Last winter a large turtle spent the winter at the bottom of the pond. Then in the spring he came out and calmly walked away. And last week I had a close encounter with a garter snake. He was unperturbed. I was quite surprised.

Whether the beauty of the dragonfly or that pesky mosquito, these critters help me know that all is well in the faith garden. They depend on the garden for food and shelter. I’m pretty sure they don’t worry about their next meal. They feel the difference of the seasons and take appropriate actions of saving food or making a nest to hibernate. The presence of these critters keeps me aware of the beauty of God’s world and the web of life. I am part of that web as are those critters. We need one another and that’s the way God created the world.

When my grandkids are all visiting, I love the morning. My husband, always the early riser, is up at the crack of dawn reading in his recliner in the quiet of the early morning.

But I wait in bed with my thoughts. No matter how chaotic “bedtime” is with 4 kids under 8 negotiating sleep with new beds and new experiences, mornings are grand.
While I’m waiting for the glory of the morning, I think about the day to come. Anticipating the awe and wonder of play and the joy around all the “help” I will get preparing meals and setting the table, I wait.

Then I hear my husband say, “she’s waiting”. I hear the fast running up the stairs of the 7 and the 4 year olds or the one step at a time of the two year old. I close my eyes, because that’s part of the game. The door opens slowly and then the giggles. “We fooled you Grandma”. We woke you up. More giggles.

Snuggling and giggling we share secrets and thank God for the glory of the morning in shared family relationships.

The faith garden is sometimes such a diverse place that sometimes it feels like we need to pause and simplify. What are the basics? What are the basic ingredients for faith in our daily lives?

The nasturtium is an annual and it’s one of my favorites. An annual has to be planted each year. But I have found that wherever you have nasturtiums this year, they will come up the next year as a volunteer. The seeds are hardy even in the north. And they are really cool seeds. Their shape is unique and they are large enough to look at one at a time. Faith is hardy in new situations

The blooms of this garden plant are found in salads. It sort of transcends many parts of life. It could be on a salad or in a rock garden. It could be in a planter or crawling along the ground. It is very adaptable. Faith in daily living is adaptable.

And nasturtiums blooms are unique. I really love the stage when they are budding but not bloomed yet. They blooms are flat more than rounded and they look like colored stepping-stones. Faith in daily living is unique.

So plant a nasturtium and think about daily living faith practices. Faith is hardy, adaptable and unique. Isn’t faith beautiful?

Families are such a great bunch. Media tends to look at either the perfect and happy families or the rude and awful families. Our families can be a combination of both.

This picture of grapes reminds me so much of the daily growth that takes place in our families of faith. Have you ever noticed that no one ripens at the same rate? Each person in your family may have a day where they feel as if they are right on with faith and life and relationships. But someone else is hurting on that same day. Each day is a challenge to bring the entire bunch together.

I wonder if this isn’t God’s plan. To daily bring families to an awareness that helps them work together. We need to be attentive to one another in our families. One moment at a time each and every day, we look at one another with love, appreciation and humor. We wiggle a smile out of one member of our family. Or we nudge words to describe feelings from another family member. Each day we work together to uplift one another as created beings of God. And this is not always a top down type of relationship. Often it is the youngest members who help adjust the day for the older members of the family.

So remember that as a family, you are a great bunch-not a perfect bunch. Go with the flow of God’s love together while living faith daily ,even with a sour grape in the bunch.

One of my girls used to call these little fall beauties “chrysanthamoms”. I was thinking about all the Moms and how much they do for their children. They are as diverse as the beautiful mums in these photos. Chrysanthamoms bloom when everything else is getting tired.

My favorite part about chrysanthamoms is that they sometimes show great beauty alone, but they also combine their beauty with other blooms to create a celebration of God.

So keep blooming against the seasons, chrysanthamoms. And for any of those who don’t know— it’s really chrysanthemum.

Honeysuckles are all over the place. These climbing honeysuckle seldom stay where I put them. I finally had to build box cages for them.

I remember when my daughter first started home schooling. I was so surprised at home often she was on the road during the day. I was thinking “home” school was at home. But there she was with three kids on the road to new experiences; play groups and a hundred other places. Home school was all over the place.

Here are a few faith activities that might be fun as you take long trips and short trips.

Allow one child to choose a scripture. When they choose the memory work, it is theirs and will be with them longer. Print the scripture out on name badges or mailing labels. Stick the labels on the back of the front seat and on the dashboard. Take turns saying the scripture aloud as you drive along. Memorize the scripture together.

Ask everyone to look for situations on your trip that might illustrate the scripture. Give lots of affirmation when a child actually finds a way that the scripture applies to life. For instance, if the scripture your child chooses is “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” John 20:29. An affirmation might happen in the grocery store. You are buying food from another country. A child might say, “I wonder if everyone in _________believes.” When a child finds an affirmation try to keep from judging the comment. Just say, “Good thought. That really goes with our scripture. Way to go!” By keeping our analysis out of a child’s faith ideas, we allow them to find their own faith path.

So let a child choose a scripture to memorize and take it as you travel in home school exploring new experiences.

The first picture is a repeat of spring bees. I used it in the blog called Faith Pollinators. The second picture I just took. Look at the difference in the ways the bees are eating. In the second picture the bees are in a frenzy of preparing for winter and hibernation. Actually only the women hibernate. The unfertilized eggs that become drones die off.

What drew me to this picture is the way that the community of bees acts in each season. In the case of the second picture, the bees have attached themselves to a food source that is readily available as they gorge getting ready for a new season.

A faith community also has a program church year with seasons. While these sometimes match seasons of the Church such as Pentecost and Epiphany, the program year in a faith community usually attaches itself to the school calendar. That’s an interesting fact to me.

I wonder what would happen if church choirs started a month before school when kids are getting tired of summer. I wonder if mission trips for youth happened in a way different than travel in the summer. Maybe an urban experience where kids went to school with the local kids for a week. I wonder if rather than the “School is in so church is in” season we have developed we could try “When School is Off, Church is On” as Sue Lennartson titled her book. A new season!

Maybe the emerging church life that we read and talk about is not about attaching ourselves to a season set by another but finding our own season. God is with us on the journey.

Every once in awhile I like to look for quotes. I look for quotes in books, magazines and quotes online. I like to see what other people say about topics. Obviously, I know nothing compared to all those that came before me.

Here are a few quotes for you to think about. I put one wondering question after each quote. It’s no fun, if I don’t make you think harder!

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. Aristotle (383-322 BC)

I wonder what the Hebrew people of 383 thought was marvelous.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
(Kahlil Gibran, artist and poet early 1900’s)l datetime=”2010-09-15T21:29:22+00:00″>

I wonder what little things refresh you.

I often talk about the message we share with our grandchildren. They are important not only for the passing of the stories but, for the unique perspective that we as elders find in daily living.

One grand child spent about 6 months saying, “Blue is my favorite color.” He was so sure. So he got the blue cup and the blue scooter. I remember trying to talk him out of blue once. No way. Blue is my favorite color. Then I got this picture from my daughter after a trip to Africa.

The first time I saw the picture, mother perspective kicked in. “Wow, honey didn’t your feet hurt with those shoes?” Then I noticed the butterfly and my Faith Gardener perspective kicked in. “I wonder what kind of butterfly that is?” (Does anyone out there know???) Finally, I saw an opportunity to talk through the color with my grandson. I showed him the picture.

“Grandma, I like it. It’s blue”. I asked how many different colors of blue. “It’s blue and blue grandma.” I asked about sky blue and light blue and dark blue and he looked at me with the most beautiful eyes and said, “they are all blue, Grandma.”

Okay, you are now thinking, what is this silly blog about? Several months later I was reading to the same grandchild who said, “Grandma look, the sky is Grandma blue.”

I love being a grandmother.