The Tender Love a Father Has

I love watching these two; M carefully helping his boy over a treacherous path, and Isaiah trusting his Daddy's hands to keep him safe.

Yet how much more precious is it to know that our Heavenly Father, the Creator and Upholder of all things, gathers His lambs with His arms, and carries them in His bosom, and gently leads those who are with young?
Though now we do not see Him, yet believing, we rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.

 All the way my Savior leads me,

What have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt His tender mercy,

Who through life has been my Guide?

Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,

Here by faith in Him to dwell!

For I know, whate’er befall me,

Jesus doeth all things well;

All the way my Savior leads me,

Cheers each winding path I tread,

Gives me grace for every trial,

Feeds me with the living Bread.

Though my weary steps may falter

And my soul athirst may be,

Gushing from the Rock before me,

Lo! A spring of joy I see;

All the way my Savior leads me,

Oh, the fullness of His love!

Perfect rest to me is promised

In my Father’s house above.

When my spirit, clothed immortal,

Wings its flight to realms of day

This my song through endless ages:

Jesus led me all the way.

- Fanny Crosby

Wherefore art Thou, Lady Spring?

It's been an a-typical April, great for burrowing under a blanket on the couch with a good book, and pretending it's January.

 But yesterday? This.

Which gives the heart a thrill.

It was a perfectly lovely evening for a mini-holiday to NOTL, which worked out well since I happened to have a strip of tickets to the Shaw Festival there for this very date.
Grace.

I've never seen NOTL so devoid of humanity. 

  

However, investigating behind the main row of shops, we found the hustle and bustle of a movie shoot, and this guy chilling with a Pepsi between scenes.

This truck added just a little more magic (snow/suds) to our increasingly magical evening.

We finished up at the Festival Theatre for The Magician's Nephew. It was, for the most part, good. Aslan disappointed, but won't Alsan always disappoint? Expecting anything even remotely so majestic or glorious as the God he is supposed to represent is, of course, ridiculous. It was, perhaps, just as well that they didn't even attempt it. On the other hand,  his centrality to the story seemed sadly lost. 

We enjoyed much of the creativity and humor, but the book, as usual, is better. :)

Anneke's 16th

We managed to pull off a couple surprises for Anna's 16th. She had a few girls over to spend the night; girls who were in cahoots about a surprise for that evening. The Plan was for them to distract Anna downstairs after dinner while we smuggled a group of teens in here for surprise party.

But first, A's dear friend from Hope, Ashleigh, joined the girls mid-afternoon, popping out from behind a potted plant to surprise the unsuspecting birthday girl. :) I love how delighted Jay looks. :) Anna, meanwhile, appears in state of stupefaction...

 ...And I can just hear Jim giggling!

The girls have a study they do together, and I had suggested they use that as the excuse to get Anneke downstairs after dinner. She might wonder about the urgency, but I was confident that with all four of them pushing for it she would surely oblige.
Accordingly, immediately following family devotions, Sarah leaned forward and said with studied nonchalance, "We should probably go down to do our study now, girls."
Jay threw the rest of us schemers for a loop by saying, "Nah, I think we should do that later, after we watch the movie."  (those B's are always the wild cards, amiright?)
Anna agreed with Jay.
After our initial shock over Jay going rogue we all immediately chorused that watching the movie first was a GREAT idea! The very thing! Something that ought to done immediately, if not sooner!  In essence, we outdid ourselves trampling The Original Plan to smithereens, and the girls bore Anna off to the basement in the stampede.
I told A I might call her up to help tuck kids a little later, which she took in stride despite any strangeness about the timing.
The guests sneaked in quietly and found hiding spots throughout the main room. I called Anna up...

Of course the first thing she wondered was "What's with mom taking pictures AGAIN?"
But that didn't prevent her from being stupefied all over again as people popped out from all over the place! She said afterwards she thought she was dreaming. :)

A big thanks to all these sweet young people who came out to make her birthday special! :)

Such a strong resemblance here between these cousins, eh?

We enjoyed having this group over again and are thankful for them! 

And we thank the Lord for our dear daughter, for her love for the Lord and the blessing she is to our family! While in the planning stages of this party I kept missing being able to chat with her about it; it made me realize how I appreciate her listening ear and input and companionship. Love you, Anna!