Home | Charis Buckland

Hello there, sweet friends! What have you all been up to so far this month? The sun has been out more often and it’s a teensy bit warmer than it has been in months. Sunshine is good for the soul. Also, painting with water is a nice, clean activity to do outside.

Raegan was super proud she memorized the 66 books of the Bible and received her certificate!

This weekend, we took it back twenty years to Hannah Montana. I admit I have every episode on DVD, even Hannah Montana: Forever.

So this raspberry drink is perfect for a popstar! I might have even owned the blonde wig…

We celebrated Izzy Grace’s third birthday Saturday!

A Disney Barbie dream house was her gift, and it has been a gift for all the girls, really! 

Yellow icing seemed like a great color for a spring birthday! We played outside until a thunderstorm rolled in!

Every Easter is a photo opportunity, so as always, we got in on that one. My standards have lowered over the years, so as long as people look in the general direction of the camera and aren’t crying, I’m good.

Seersucker for the boys!

Pinks for the girls!

Many of you, my friends, know that Baby will be born next week, about three weeks early, due to an incredibly rare syndrome causing many abnormalities that doctors have never seen before, particularly affecting the brain. We have to wait to see the outcome of this. Many days I have thought, “But God, I’m taking my kids to church, teaching them to love you, read Your Word, so why this?”

Waiting is a trial for sure! Who likes to wait? I sure don’t! I think of the impatient preschoolers in my house who ask me for a thousand snacks right before supper, but they have to wait a few more minutes to sit down at the dinner table. We all would prefer to get what we want when we want it. Life is not like that, though, is it?

I have a friend waiting for God to open just the right door for a teaching opportunity. I have friends waiting for a wonderful husband. I know people praying for babies. We all have to wait sometimes. 

What do we do while we wait? We just celebrated Easter this past weekend. Yes, He is alive! He is risen just as the prophets said! You can find Matthew’s account in Matthew 26-28. There was that time, though between Jesus’s arrest and that resurrection Sunday morning where Jesus’s followers waited. The disciples, specifically, had been with Jesus for about three years, witnessed His miracles, and learned His teaching. Many of these men had given up previous jobs and left their families and everything familiar to them, to follow Jesus. When Jesus died and they waited, what was going through their minds. Maybe they wondered if what they believed to be true about Jesus being the Savior was actually true. 

When Jesus actually died on the cross and was placed in a tomb, He wasn’t immediately resurrected. There was waiting. There was silence. We studied the road to Easter with a kit from church, so we kept all these objects on the coffee bar to remind us of the different parts of the Easter story.

Sometimes I feel God is silent. I have faith that He is working, but I can’t see it. Even now, with a birthday looming ahead next week where I have no idea how it will turn out, I am frantically looking for evidence of God’s fingerprints somewhere and they’re hard to find at this moment. I wonder how God could ever redeem this situation where every dreaded hospital visit brings bad news and the past few months since Christmas week when we received the news of fluid on the baby’s brain a glimpse of the sin and brokenness of sin in this messed up world. 

The good news is that Jesus didn’t stay in the tomb. There was redemption and a Resurrection Sunday. In Matthew 28, Mary Magdalene and Mary went to visit the tomb to discover  an angel who told them Jesus was risen and they were filled with joy. I am sure it felt like forever that weekend for Jesus’s precious friends, the disciples, and for the people who knew Him and loved Him. 

In Mark 9:14-29, there is an account of a daddy who desperately wanted Jesus to help his son, who was possessed by a demon. They boy’s daddy says to Jesus, “But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us?” Jesus responds with, “ ‘IF You can’? Everything is possible for the one who believes.” The boy’s daddy says something interesting next. “I do believe; help my unbelief.” Hmmm…He says he believes Jesus but also asks for help to believe that Jesus can do anything. For myself, I often believe Jesus CAN do miracles, I just don’t believe He Will, and sometimes I need help believing. Perhaps this daddy who loved his son and begged for Jesus’s help felt the same way. Yes, Jesus can, but will He? Fast forward to the end of the story, and learn that Jesus did heal the son. 

Are you waiting for something too? Maybe it seems impossible. Nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). Let’s remember that. Waiting often feels like a waste of time. I know I hate it. I’m a person of action and want to get stuff done. When we wait, we can rest easier knowing He is working in preparation for what comes next…even when it feels excruciating. I believe at this time, God gives me just enough for what I need today to make it. Not more than enough, just enough. So I know Who really will deliver me. It’s not me on my own, for sure. God’s going to have to take care of this.

Let’s look forward to God’s redemption, even when we don’t know how it’s possible or what that might look like. Let’s look for God’s fingerprints even when we can’t seem to find evidence of Him anywhere. Let’s remember that one morning many years ago, Jesus walked out of the tomb and was alive again as the Savior of the world. Our debt for our sin has been taken care of and we are free and made alive again. We have hope even in waiting because of Jesus. After disappointments, hurts, failures, trauma, brokenness, and heartache, together sisters, let’s look for God’s redemption in our lives.

Love,
Charis

Pic(k) of the week: Mama ain’t happy when she finds opened icing in the pantry meant for Izzy Grace’s birthday cake…