Saturday's Old Photo

Monday is Victoria Day, so this is what my kids call “the May long weekend.” I’ve been doing yard work and spring cleaning, and paying very little attention to the blog. But since I skipped the Saturday’s old photo last week, I can’t skip it altogether this week, can I?

 

What I’ll do, to make up for my negligence last Saturday, is post two photos this Saturday. I wanted to find a photo to show my two oldest children when they were younger and I couldn’t decide which one of two possibilities to use, so I’ll use them both.

 

These two were born two years apart, and they were always very good friends.  In the photo on above, they are almost four and almost two years old. You can see what a big kid youngest son was. At this time, he weighed almost as much as oldest daughter even though she’s two years older. But she was definitely the older sister—very bossy, but also very protective.

 

On the right is another photo taken a couple of years later when she was six and he was four. I love it because they are holding hands—you can click on the photo to see that detail—and when I remember them together as younger children, that’s how I remember them. Oldest daughter was always watching out for her younger brother, and leading him around by the hand was one of the ways she watched out for him.

 

Once when they were only four and two, we lost them in a store and couldn’t find them anywhere. When we did find them, they were outside, just ready to cross the busy parking lot to get to our car. They had been looking for us, too, and had concluded that we must have forgotten them and left them behind. Oldest son was crying, and oldest daughter was holding his hand, talking very reassuringly to him, and watching for a safe opportunity for them to make it to the car. I don’t know what they’d have done when they got there and found that we weren’t there and the car was locked!

 

What you see in the background of this bottom photo is an old dredge that was used for  gold mining near Dawson City.

What special benefits do the members of the invisible church enjoy by Christ?

The members of the invisible church by Christ enjoy union and communion with him in grace and glory.[1]

1. John 17:21, 24

   … that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
   
   O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

   Eph. 2:5-6

   even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…

Question 65, Westminster Larger Catechism

It's a Holiday

It’s the 17th of May (Syttende Mai) or Constitution Day for Norwegians. It was in 1814 that Norway broke away from Denmark after being under Danish control for several hundred years, and on May 17th of that year Norway’s constitution was established.  Nevermind that Norway was part of a kingdom with Sweden until 1905; this is still the day that they celebrate their independence. 

 

So to celebrate the Seventeenth of May here on the blog, I’m posting the words to the Norwegian national anthem, Ja, vi elsker dette landet, and including a link at the end so you can hear it as well.

 

In Norwegian:

Ja, vi elsker dette landet,
Som det stiger frem,
Furet, værbitt, over vannet,
Med de tusen hjem.
Elsker, elsker det og tenker
På vår far og mor
Og den saganatt som senker
Drømme på vår jord,
Og den saganatt som senker
Senker drømme på vår jord,

Norske mann i hus og hytte,
Takk din store Gud!
Landet ville han beskytte
Skjønt det mørkt så ut.
Alt hva fedrene har kjempet,
Mødrene har grett,
Har den Herre stille lempet,
Så vi vant vår rett,
Har den Herre stille lempet,
Så vi vant, vi vant vår rett.

Ja, vi elsker dette landet,
Som det stiger frem,
Furet, værbitt over vannet,
Med de tusen hjem!
Og som fedres kamp har hevet
Det fra nød til seier
Også vi når det blir krevet,
For dets fred slår leir,
Også vi når det blir krevet,
For dets fred, dets fred slår leir.

 In English:

Yes, we love this country
as it rises forth,
rugged, weathered, above the sea,
with those thousand homes.
Loving, loving it and thinking
about our father and mother
and the saga night that sends
dreams to our earth.
And the saga night that sends,
sends dreams to our earth.

Norseman, in house and cabin,
Thank your great God!
It was His will to protect the country
Although things looked dark.
While fathers fought
And mothers cried,
Our Lord quietly opened the way
So that we won our right.
Our Lord quietly opened the way
So that we won our rights.

Yes, we love this country
as it rises forth,
rugged and weathered, above the sea,
With those thousand homes.
And as our fathers’ struggle has raised it
from distress to victory,
even we, when it is demanded,
for its peace will encamp
even we, when it is demanded,
for its peace will encamp.

—Listen.