Water

Wednesday evening, after devouring our warm chocolate chip cookies at the hotel, we packed sandwiches and hiked a quarter of a mile across dunes to Lake Michigan. It was breezy and not overly warm at Saugatuck Dunes State Park, but we immersed ourselves in the Great Lake anyway. Even Julie ventured into the water.

We stood or floated as wave after wave rolled toward shore and splashed over us. I even ingested some of the greatness of the lake when I breathed at the wrong time. We were shivering when we finally made our way to dry sand. Julie's teeth chattered despite the jacket and dry skirt she borrowed from Kendra. But even with goose bumps and mosquito bites (from the hike over the wooded dunes) it was glorious.

Camp-in

Our eleventh annual girls' campout with the Byler girls became a camp-in this year. Betsy wasn't able to haul the camping gear from the attic and Julie wasn't ready to sleep on the ground. So we reserved a hotel room and prepared to rough it, with warm chocolate chip cookies at check-in and mounds of pillows on the bed.

Green

Light

Shattered glass reflects morning light at the scene of the accident.

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.

Instead they put it on its stand,

and it give light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before men,

that they may see your good deeds

and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5: 15-16 NIV

Being a light on a stand is uncomfortable. Light is noticed.

Many times after my family was in an accident in January, I've felt like a candle balanced on a candlestick. I usually avoid being noticed and find the candlestick a narrow, hard perch.

Yet our family has been noticed. First responders, law enforcement officers, witnesses, doctors, nurses, therapists, judge, prosecuting attorney, family, friends, co-workers and neighbors in the past months, have all watched to see how we will respond to the event that has changed our lives.

Many people have commented that our family has an attitude of forgiveness. If, in ourselves, we could forgive the woman who ran the stop sign, causing the accident that endangered nine other lives and seriously injured three of my siblings, it would be extraordinary. I don't possess that ability.

The forgiveness we exhibit is only the reflection of the forgiveness we have experienced in Jesus Christ. Because of what He has done for us, we have no choice but to forgive and to continue forgiving.

So, if you see the tiny twinkle of a candle or the sparkle of shattered glass, give honor to the Light we reflect.

Waterlily

Church

Thirty years

Mr. and Mrs. Cook