Choosing Thomas

Here's an exceedingly powerful example of caring for the least of these, and doing the right thing no matter the emotional cost.

This video is from the Dallas Morning News and chronicles T. K. and Deidrea Laux, an evangelical couple who decided to give birth to their son, Thomas, despite the fact that he had the DNA abnormality Trisomy 13.

Watching this video will probably leave you in tears but also should bring deep affirmation that here is a good and hard thing to do.

HT: JT

Family Camp

Our church joined the other PCA churches of Northern New Mexico (and Durango, CO) for the 9th annual family camp in the beautiful Jemez mountains.

Faith's 4!

And she chose Chuck-E-Cheese for daddy's birthday lunch date.

We have room: Adoption Documentary

Promo for "We Have Room" Documentary from David Watson on Vimeo.

HT: the Abba fund blog

The third best thing about Heaven (if you're a boy)

In family worship last night the kids had some questions about what Heaven would be like.

I excitedly brought up some of the greatest things about the world to come. "There's no sin, no pain", but before I could mention the ultimate benefit of Heaven, my oldest son interrupted, bursting out with this, "And there's no bathtubs!"

That caused the other boys' eyes to grow large with wonder and expectation. I expect Eli is now working on his next song, "Amazing love how can it be, no need for bathtubs in Heaven for me!"

Portrait of Calvin

This 1950s John Calvin bio is an enjoyable, easy read. It's reasonably priced ($5) or available for free download here.

This will probably be the main source I use in presenting a simple biographical message on Calvin in adult Sunday School. There's one anecdote from the book that I'm not sure will come up then so I'll mention it here.

Calvin had lots of young children in his home for many years, meaning his greatest works, like The Institutes of the Christian Religion, were written in the midst of teething toddlers and messy diapers. That a text of this import (it's still a standard in many seminaries) was written in a context like mine is both motivating and deeply depressing. Calvin was one-of-a-kind.