Color the Seasons

 I was staring out at the orange-mottled scene in front of me, the top edge of the Black Forest reflecting in the Nonnenmattweiher Lake down below us. (What a fun name!) It was a gray drizzly day to be out hiking with 5 friends, but despite the chill in the air, we were responding to the call of the outdoors and the company of lovely people. The last time I had been out this far into the Black Forest was during the Spring of 2020, when the only way to get outside, according to the government, was in the name of "doing sports." Everyone suddenly became a hiker.

I closed my eyes and recalled the vibrant bright green from that time, the tips of trees showing off their new growth. I remembered how brilliant the whites of the apple tree blossoms had been, and the blue of the sky without contrails breaking it up. With another minute, I could've remembered the feel of that spring sun and the cacophony of birds. Today the colors were much more muted and animals were beginning to hide away. Krista pointed out that the oranges and yellows and even reds of our glorious fall were definitely fading away to brown here at the end of October, and soon they would descend to the ground, leaving only the darkest of green conifers. As I tried to picture what the forest will look like in just two weeks' time without the orange, I caught a whiff of Christmas, all pine wrapped up in cinnamon and firewood. It was fleeting, but it struck me how much the colors of the forest are tied to seasons for me. The brown and white crunicheness of winter, the neon green growth of spring, the lush overhead branches with their thick greens of summer, and these muted warm tones of fall. If you can't tell by now, I love the forest!

Nonnenmattweiher Lake and Belchen Mountain to the right

May the Nations Rejoice

Mallory* was the cool trainee, sitting in the far back corner, mask securely in place and phone in hands as she’d both type and nod along to what we trainers were saying. Every now and then, she paused and interjected an incredibly insightful comment, but mostly I struggled to read her engagement level or whether she was internally rolling her eyes at what I was saying. Add to that her observation of my tattoo one day at lunch with a slight shake of her head, and I spent the rest of the week in pants, unsure if I had offended her or all of African culture. Or at least Christian African culture.

Partway through the week, I did observe her put down her phone, cross her arms, and lean back in her chair. It was the session on leaders' being able to cast a vision for their school, and I was sharing personally about the vision that eventually took me into missions work and specifically teaching. As a little girl, I hadn’t really imagined being a teacher, but I did always know I had a heart for the nations. That scene in Revelation 7 when every tribe, tongue, and nation is standing before the throne of God - that could make me tear up in an instance! In sharing that story with the trainees, trying not to choke up in front of them, for a brief moment the vision crystalized right in front of me. The passion to serve their own nations was written all over their faces, and the thought that these trainees were committing themselves to work on behalf of Christian education in their East African countries burst out in gratitude for them. In the corner, Mallory’s face scrunched up, inscrutable as ever.

On the last day, we were presented with Thank You cards, which I didn’t open until I was on the plane back to Germany. Everyone said really nice things and expressed gratitude for the training. And then, there in the corner (where else) was Mallory’s little scrawl that read: “May the nations rejoice because you came.” There was no holding back the tears this time. It was my dream, succinctly articulated as a vision statement, and all I could think was “Yes, Lord, may it be so!”

*not her real name

Mallory is in the back, fourth from the left.

Check the box first!

We had worked our way through the maze of Swedish furniture, lying on all the mattresses and beds in the process, and I stood now in front of the help desk with the certainty of my decision in hand. I wanted the Björksnäs in the 140x200 cm size. That way it would fit the boxspring I already had at home, though I did want a new mattress, please. The lady handed me the printout, and I followed it down to the letter once we got to the large warehouse hall, hauling only the boxes with the codes she had specified. I was sweating by the time we reached the van, but I couldn’t wait until Karen came over and we could assemble my new purchase.

I had cleared my room of all traces of the old bed, the boxspring and mattress took up the entire hallway, but Karen and I had just enough space to spread out the Ikea boxes and begin alan-wrenching together bed-legs and correctly organizing various frame pieces. At one point, the thought crossed my mind, “This bed is going to block some of the window. I must have measured wrong,” but on we forged. The 16 tiniest screws that had to be hand-twisted into the metal portion where the mattress frame would rest were nearly our undoing. The drill couldn’t reach, and it took the two of us 45 minutes and some hand cramps to get them all in.

About two hours into the process, I reached for the fourth and last box, the one that held the spring wood frames, and that was when my eyes caught the large numbers on the side panel for the first time: 160x200 cm. My eyes darted back to the bed and the extra bit that stuck out in front of the window. In panic I looked at Karen, who threw her hands up to her face. “What?!” “I bought the wrong size everything!” Sure enough, we were able to finish assembling all the bed pieces, thank the Lord, but the boxspring and mattress left a giant-feeling 20-cm gap that I rolled into the first night.

Karen laughed and then cut herself short, “We’re not starting over, are we?!” Of course we didn’t. Those 16 screws alone weren’t worth it, much less another trip to Freiburg and the hassle of a German return. In the end, I was able to sell my 140x200 boxspring and mattress and get a 160x200 size one so that I no longer fall into the gap. But I learned my lesson: always check the boxes for all the numbers.