Sarah Dixon Young's Blog: Love Much, page 16

Paul’s Peace

When my grandmother passed away, I inherited a unique Kurdish kilim.

It is a woven hall runner with intricately made designs. When I turn it over to clean, I am always amazed at the tangles of knots and thread on the back. The artisans who weave kilims have an amazing skill.

Psalm 139 tells us that the Lord God carefully wove each of us as we were being formed in the womb. Not only are the intricate parts of our cells fascinatingly constructed, but even our skin, the most visible part of us is a...

James’s Joy

One of the last things Jesus told His disciples before His crucifixion was, “When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow that her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will have joy, and no one will take your joy from you.”

Birth is messy. Risky. Life-changing. It is also painful.

However, joy makes it worth enduring. ...

John’s Love

The disciple John chose a nickname for himself: the disciple whom Jesus loved.

He defined himself by the love of Jesus. He knew what love was because He had known Jesus.

When a woman finds out that she is expecting a baby, she often starts eating differently, exercising differently, and planning differently. You can tell that she already loves the little life that is growing inside of her because she puts the baby’s needs and preferences ahead of her own.

Maybe she used to drink lots of coffee, ...

Peter’s Hope

1 Pet. 1:3, Mark 14:66-72, Lamentations 3:16-26

Believe it or not, a lot of people disagree on when an unborn baby is alive. Even with all our technology that shows fetal development and heartbeat, society still wrestles with the question of when a baby is a living person.

In his book Discovering Design with Biology, Jay Wile details the seven characteristics of life as 1. Irreducible complexity 2. Metabolism 3. Maintaining a constant internal environment 4. Response to a stimulus 5. Adap...

Awaiting the Birth

The wonder of birth is wrapped up in waiting.

As we wait for a baby to be born, he or she is growing inside of mother’s womb.

There’s a lot that happens in that time of waiting. By day 22, the baby has a heartbeat. On day 42, you might find the baby hiccuping and spontaneously moving his or her arms, hands, and legs. By day 70, the baby has his own unique set of fingerprints, and it has all happened while we wait!

That’s what Advent is: waiting with wonder.

The world had waited a ve...

Contraire

My youngest son named our guinea rooster “Contraire.” 

The bird has earned it. He came as one of ten guinea chicks, and remained as one of three that escaped a mink. Sickness and a raccoon whittled down the flock until Contraire was the sole survivor.

He keeps meticulous watch over the regular chickens, sounding like a car alarm whenever anything comes near. However, he is also mean to the chickens, so he keeps watch from outside the coop. 

He has had to be opposed to everything just t...

Daily Bread

Highschool biology has opened up a new world to our family through the microscope.

Recently, my daughter had to examine active yeast cells, and we all took turns ooohing and ahhhing over their beauty.

When I make bread or pizza dough, I never take the time to gaze in wonder at the yeast doing its work. I just accept it as an assumed part of our daily lives. I didn’t know beauty was there until the microscope revealed it. 

God’s Word functions like the microscope, bringing attention to ...

The Prison of Pot

It was 11:30 one night when my dogs started barking. A group of five boys was walking up the driveway.

They called out to me, and I recognized them. I called the dogs, and the boys walked up to the house. They often came to play basketball or eat a meal. My mind raced to explain why they would be out so late.

As they came into the light of my porch, I saw their red eyes. Some were giggling. One of them asked, “Do you have any watermelon?”

The distinctive smell of marijuana hung about them. The old...

The Curator

“I acquired this piece after a lengthy court battle,” the Curator said, motioning to his left. 

I gazed intently at the ornate sarcophagus housed in a dimly lit display case. The golden skin and ruby eyes of the case no longer looked like the face of the dried and shrunken mummy inside it. 

“I really wondered during some of the deliberations whether I would win this artifact in the end,” the Curator droned. “The back-and-forth, back-and-forth was tiresome. I really wish some people wouldn...

The Curator, Part 2

Goliath’s severed head, Nebuchadnezzar’s fingernails, Belshazzar’s golden goblet, and the worm-eaten corpse of Herod featured prominently in the Curator’s collection. 

I grew tired of hearing his gloating long before he was tired of detailing it.

Finally, we had toured the entire museum. Only one exhibit remained.

“Perhaps you are pressed for time. Would you like to just skip the last exhibit?” he asked.

Before he asked the question, I would have jumped at any chance to be out of th...