JONATHAN'S JOY - JEHOVAH

JONATHAN’S JOY – JEHOVAH

Composed at 3:30 a.m. on March 12, 2010

by Craig Tavani

Upon hearing news concerning Nicholas, my beloved nephew

(to be said and sung and played [4/4 time, B flat minor] together as a family)

Jonathan became one in Spirit with David …

… And Jonathon … arose …

… and encouraged him in God.

(1 Samuel 18:1; 22:15)

(cf. Exodus 1526; Nehemiah 8:10; Psalm 147:3)

When Jonathan arose, he encouraged him in God.

Becoming one in Spirit, they could come and go in peace.

Jonathan remembered the Word God spoke to Moses,

Who cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a Tree,

And he threw it in the waters and the waters became sweet.

I am the LORD, I am the LORD, I am the LORD who heals you.

I am the LORD, I am the LORD, I am the LORD who heals you.

Be still, this day is holy! You need not grieve nor weep;

Come to an understanding of the Word made known to you.

He heals the broken-hearted and He binds all of their wounds;

The LORD supports afflicted ones, abundant in His strength.

I am the LORD, I am the LORD, I am the LORD who heals you.

I am the LORD, I am the LORD, I am the LORD who heals you.

A Tavani family reading

of

Psalm 147

Jonathan runs on, with Nicholas, violin in hand, then following; they interact. Nicholas begins to play, and soon is joined by his other brothers who play along. The whole Tavani family comes together while the music continues to play.

(The piece of music to be played can be composed by Lexi.)

CRAIG: PRAISE THE LORD!

SIERRA: For it is good to sing praise to our God;

COCO: For it is pleasant and praise is becoming

STEPHEN: The LORD builds up community,

And gathers those cast down in struggling;

LINDA: He heals the broken-hearted

And binds up all their wounds.

NICK: He counts the number of stars!

He gives names to all of them.

Great is our LORD and abundant in strength!

The LORD supports the afflicted;

He brings the wicked to the ground.

DONNA: Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;

Sing praises to the LORD on every instrument.

VINCENT: Who covers the heaven with clouds?

ALL: OUR GOD!

VINCENT: Who provides rain for the earth?

ALL: OUR GOD!

VINCENT: Who makes grass grow on the mountains?

ALL: OUR GOD!

SONIA: He gives to the beast its food,

And to the younger ones which cry.

MARCUS: He does not delight in some creature’s strength;

He takes no pleasure in the legs of any man.

TINE: The LORD favors those who fear Him,

Those who wait in hope for His loving-kindness.

ALL: PRAISE THE LORD!

Once my thoughts turned to Tine

Remembering the moment I fell in love with Tine always brings me joy. This year marks our 25th year of marriage and I am glad to celebrate by telling you this story.

I was in the Army, stationed as an officer in Germany. My duty station had a store called "Stars and Stripes," not unlike many others found on military posts around the world. There one could buy books and magazines and some other stuff as well. One afternoon - August 28th, 1984, to be exact - I was standing in the aisle of the store, as was my daily habit, with some book in hand, browsing through the pages to determine whether it was worth buying it or not. I recall, as well, the time - 3:30 p.m. - a detail that remains for me strangely significant, although I cannot tell you why.

The title of the book I have no need to call to memory for I did decide to buy it and have it here before me now - A TIME TO PLAY: ON CHILDHOOD AND CREATIVITY. Each anecdotal chapter told some story illustrating something about parents helping children play to let them "be and become all their Creator intended." One chapter in particular captured my own imagination; it was entitled "Daddy's Home!" Reading every word right to the chapter's end incited something thrilling deep inside my soul, especially the last few sentences: "Ours is a true collaboration: These are our children; we both contribute to their lives. What we give to them are gifts to each other. The proclamation 'Daddy's home!' sends spirits soaring - and none, I avow, higher than mine!"

Way back then the thrill was somewhat chilling because I knew I was not yet faithfully mature enough to have the intimate relationship promised in those words. Yet, even now those words still thrill me, shivering my soul. I was sure I wanted to be a father in the future, but I knew I must learn to be a husband first. Standing there I thought how wonderful it would be to be a father, hearing my children shout with joy when I came home. That happy thought came first, immediately after reading, and then the thought that came next was this, "Tine would be a wonderful mother."

In that very moment, I knew I was in love. No other name cluttered my imagination, only hers. Not that there were no others - no, there were many, many other names that could have competed for my attention and would continue to haunt my fickle thoughts until I learned, in time, to love. Yet no other names had come to mind just then as I considered having children of my own. Only Tine. Once my thoughts turned to Tine, my life then turned as well.

MUSINGS ON PAST NIGHT #2

The Pasta Nights in our home every Tuesday evening make community more possible. However, more is needed.

Each person has that polish on one's persona that we are reluctant to touch for fear of marring it in some way. Our words and actions with one another may or may not allow us to go beyond some superficial communication. We politely avoid deeper discussion of what really may be at issue during table talk. We are willing to come to the table together, but then what? Confronting one another may provoke conflict that cries for resolution rather than uneasy compromise.

Face-to-face interaction in community opens up the possibility for right relationship. Communication completes the connection and keeps the relationship going. Communion comes about when all this is covered in the context of love. Hospitable community brings us together, truthful communication keeps us together, loving communion binds us together. The full communion of persons is that end toward which becoming conformed to the image of God in Christ is essentially intended for being human.

MATURITY

My father came to lecture at my college in February 1981 during my final semester there before I graduated. What follow are notes I took on a talk he gave on the topic of Maturity:

1 Corinthians 13:11

When I was a child, I used to

speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child;

when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

Don't confuse maturing with rotting. When you stop maturing, your start rotting! Sin interrupted the eternal maturation which God had intended for Adam and so death was the result. But now Christ has given us eternal life, and death is just yet another step in the sequence of maturing, developing, growing in the kingdom of God.

• We are unwitting instruments in the hands of the Spirit, as children.
• Things which were appealing to me as a child no longer have any significance.
• Being a child is automatic, being an adult is willful. Believers must consciously put off the childish thing and take on Christ.
• To justify my behavior today because God approved it yesterday has absolutely no ground in Scripture.
• Some characteristics of childhood never change: e.g. trust - necessary to maintain solid strong relationship

"faith of a child" - as you have received him, so walk in him

You can never have any greater faith

than when you received Christ as Savior.

The child seeks self-edification.

The mature person seeks edification of [others] the Body of Christ.

Ephesians 4:14-15

...we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.

Speaking the truth in love,

we will grow up into Him who is the Head.

1Co 14:20

... do not be children in your thinking;

... but in your thinking be mature.

In understanding be an adult.

Philippians 4:8

... whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Controlled thinking is a mark of maturity.

MUSINGS on PASTA NIGHT #1

Every Tuesday, at our house in Phoenixville, our family hosts PASTA NIGHT. It is simple really: we boil water, put in some variety of pasta noodles, and wait to see who will arrive to share dinner with us. Any number of people may show up, some whom we expect because they are regulars, others who come for any number of reasons. This past week we had 18 people sitting at our table(s). The week before we counted 21.

I consider this weekly ritual of hospitality to be a legacy of my parents. They often would find themselves spontaneously hosting large groups of friends whom my brother and I would invite over the house after church or after school or who knows when. I don't ever remember them balking at having so many so suddenly in our home hoping to be fed and entertained. We were blessed to live in a large home well-designed for entertaining guests. Yet the house would have been nothing had it not been for the gracious spirit of hospitality which inhabited my beloved mother and father.

In future posts I will review past and present PASTA NIGHTS and reflect on how hospitality has become a hallmark tradition in the Tavani family.

Being married

Doing stuff reveals the truth about knowing stuff. I am married and this makes me realize over and over again how much I don't "know" about marriage. All the words I have from my father, all the lessons he tried to help me learn, all the time I shared with him, all this amounts to nothing except for how I put all this into practice. That which is real reveals the truth in what is ideal - I may imagine I know what marriage is, but this ideal of what I know must daily confront the reality of my relationship with my own wife.

I write this because I want to teach others what is true. I want my words to be backed up by whatever works in my own marriage. Perhaps I'll have my wife post items on this blog as well. After all, she is the reason why I am married.

Hmmm ... telling the story of my own marriage may be the truest way of teaching Marriage and the Family as my father intended it to be taught. We'll see.

NJT Review

Reviewed work: Marriage and the Family Today by Keith Melville
Teaching Sociology, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Jan., 1989), pp. 104-105

(review consists of 2 pages)
Published by: American Sociological Association