Natalie Hartwig- Central Region

I'm a TK  (Teacher's Kid) who raised 2 PKs (Preacher's Kid)  Most TKs and PKs will grow up without having grand parents or cousins beside them every Sunday. It takes real work and a willingness to make yourself vulnerable to help your children establish family of faith ties within the local congregation that is their church home. I think the clearest instruction to do so is found at the foot of the cross in Christ's creation of the mother/son tie between the beloved disciple, John, and Mary, his own mother. When you read the various accounts of the crucifixion and resurrection it is clear that John's own mother was probably also present at the foot of the cross. Christ did not intend to break the tie between John and his birth mother, but rather to emphasize the closeness that should exist within the family of faith. Here is a short devotion that I wrote some years ago that looks at the same thing from a slightly different angle. 

Ashes to Roses

“He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted” 

Isaiah 61:1b

Dora envied her best friend’s family. They filled a pew and a half with 3 children, 2 in laws, and 7 grandchildren. Dora’s own children were scattered from coast to coast. She sat with them only during their annual visit. She prayed for them faithfully, spoke often of and to them, but she so missed being with them in worship. 

God heard the sighs of her heart and opened her eyes to a young family with more small children than they had laps. Dora began with prayer and then regularly sat with that family offering a shoulder to a sleepy child, a guiding hand to a young reader, and a welcome smile every week. They became part of her family of the heart as well as her family of faith.

Dearest Father, thank you for the chance to share Your love with the children you have given to me in my family of faith. Amen

Ask: Ask your pastor to introduce you to a family that could use an honorary grandparent.

Read: Isaiah 61:1-3 and John 19:25 - 26

Even though our season is Epiphany 

these words penned by Natalie

 are a wonderful, simple reminder 

of the ways that Advent fills us 

each and every day:

A Three Sentence Story of Advent

Gifts of love, simply wrapped, place in a crib.

Lights of life centered on the table 

where bread is broken and THE Word is read.

Symbols of faith hung on a tree reflect 

the Life offered on a tree to give me life.

And a Haiku-

Only God

Lives, Loves, Gives, Forgives

Forever.

(C) Natalie Grace 1/24/2016

We give thanks for the way that Natalie encourages us
to "be" family and see others as "family."