Tag Archives: Family

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Harmony

Barker Family 1972

While growing up our family car rides always included singing. Our parents had been in a quartet in college and both my mother and father had beautiful singing voices. They could harmonize on any song – even while learning a new song – which still amazes me to this day. How do you harmonize to a melody you are hearing for the first time?!

So while we traveled we sang. The majority if our songs were hymns and gospel songs, although we sang lots of “camp fire” tunes and sing-a-longs. I always sang the melody – someone had to. My brothers can also harmonize, but I never developed that talent. I always stuck to the melody because that is what I heard in my head.

Our family traveled quite a bit when I was small. We went to South Dakota one summer where my father taught at the Wheaton College Science Station in the Black Hills. We lived in Boulder, Colorado the year I was in third grade because my father attended University of Colorado on a National Science Foundation Grant. Then we traveled to North Carolina beginning in 1958 in the summer where my father worked as a seasonal ranger for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. When my parents bought a campground in North Carolina with another family from Wheaton, the Days, and we traveled back and forth to the mountains of North Carolina three times a year, staying each summer from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

I LOVED those trips in the car! We would sing for many miles taking turns to pick the songs we would sing. As my brothers and I got older we sang lots of folk songs – Peter, Paul, and Mary were my favorites. My father particularly enjoyed the Southern Gospel Songs and looking back, I realize now it was probably because of the harmony in those songs.

When I hear voices united in harmony it touches me deeply. There is something so special in hearing various voices singing different parts that join together to make harmony. The Cambridge dictionary defines harmony as – a pleasing combination of different parts, peaceful agreement between people, or the simultaneous sounding of musical notes to create a pleasant sound.

In music that “simultaneous sounding of musical notes to create a pleasant sound” is plainly evident to most people. Our ears cringe when we hear notes that don’t blend in – it is not pleasant! There are some people who are “tone deaf”. These individuals don’t hear notes blend or notice when they don’t. Generally speaking most of us recognize music that is in harmony and we also know when it is not.

I was pondering this after reading John 17 during our Bible study last week. This is the chapter where Jesus prays for us before he is arrested and eventually crucified. Jesus prays for us – verse 20 says –

20 “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. 21 I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

Jesus is praying that we will be ONE – in harmony – why? Jesus knows he will be crucified, buried, and rise again ultimately returning to his Father in heaven. Yet in the midst of this agony he faces, Jesus prays for us – ” All who will ever believe in me”.

Jesus wants us to be ONE – in harmony – so that the world will believe God sent Jesus. Just as we know if notes are sung or played in harmony – the world recognizes if the followers of Jesus are living in harmony. The part of the definition of harmony that fits here is – peaceful agreement between people. When the world sees the Body of Christ – the Church – attacking one another – fusing and fighting over doctrine or Biblical interpretations it is obvious there is no harmony. Why would the world believe that God sent Jesus to save the world when his children can’t live in harmony and love one another?

These are divisive times in our world, our country, our community, and even in families. The Lord has convicted me with my own thoughts and actions. How I am responding to his desire that I live in harmony with my brothers and sisters in Christ? Do I let issues drive a wedge between me and my fellow Christians? Do I let anything bring disharmony into my family?

Jesus prayed that we would be ONE as he and the Father are ONE.

I can be a part of answering Jesus’ prayer by living in harmony with my family and my sisters and brothers in Christ.

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His Legacy Endures

My father, Clayton Barker, would have been 102 last month. He has joined that “great cloud of witnesses” cheering us on and I often sense his presence doing just that. What a legacy of love he has left! A few months ago I received a package in the mail. It had a return address I didn’t recognize, but gradually a recent email came to my mind that asked me for my address. This message was from someone who was going through their parents’ things and came across two wooden bowls my father had turned. He always signed his name with a wood burning tool and also wrote the type of wood the bowl was made of.

The following note was enclosed when the package arrived –

“Clayton Barker was a special man. I knew him as one of my high school teachers and the operator of Holly Cove (Campground). I spent many summer vacations at Holly Cove with my parents in our pop up trailer. Some of my best memories are from Holly Cove. That was a special time – Sunday morning breakfast and church service, the pool, the little pond, nature hikes with Mr. Barker, catching snakes, lizards, turtles and frogs, hiking, buying hot dogs and marshmallows at the camp store. As a biology teacher, he taught me about the “miracle of creation”. To this day I credit him with much of my enjoyment of nature. He had the ability to describe the intricacies of God’s creation in a way that came alive.

This former student of my father’s had come across the bowls my father had given her parents and thought I would like to have them. Since we have grandchildren I can pass the bowls on to them and the bowls are greatly appreciated!

The lovely expression in the note of the impact my father had on her life made me reflect on the legacy my father left on so many others, not just on me and my brothers. He LOVED to teach. He taught high school biology for 40 years. The first 33 years were at Wheaton Central High School, the last 7 at a mission school in Taiwan. He was a seasonal naturalist in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for several summers and conducted nature hikes and evening talks about the plants and animals of the Great Smokies. He began turning wooden bowls in his 70’s and taught many others how to turn wood. He was even teaching woodturning at age 91 just before he died.

The above picture is taken with one of his great grandsons. My father is “teaching” Caleb something about the worm he just brought “Great Grandpa Barker” to see.

The greatest legacy my father left was his deep love for God and His creation his desire to walk with the Lord his entire life.

As Dad was fading away the final 3 weeks of his life here on earth (he had been teaching woodturning and was weeding the flower garden until those last weeks) he went through various tests to determine his waning strength. It was finally determined he had a fast moving lymphoma. I was with my older brother and mother at his bedside when the oncologist told him about the lymphoma. “We don’t usually recommend chemotherapy for someone at 91 years of age. Yet if you want us to pursue treatment, that is your decision. If you choose not to, do you understand what that means”

“Yes”, my Father replied, “It means I will go be with my Heavenly Father who I have walked with all these years.”

My father lived a life of faith and he died peacefully that week expressing his faith. What a gift to my Mother, my brothers, and I!

Paul wrote to Timothy in II Timothy 4: 6-8 NLT –


6 As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God. The time of my death is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. 8 And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

The legacy my father left endures – the greatest Father’s Day gift of all.

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The Perfect Gift

What a joy it is to be able to give gifts! As a grandparent, I have enjoyed giving gifts to grandchildren and I have chosen the same gift for each child (the first born of each family) on their first Christmas. It is the Fisher-Price manger scene. Last Christmas I was able to give our first GREAT grandchild her manger scene. It looks a bit different but the main pieces are the same. the stable, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, wise men, and Jesus. I first bought the set I have in 2002 before I had any grandchildren. I was so excited to find a manger scene that children could actually play with – that wouldn’t just sit on a shelf or mantle.

I have kept that first manger scene and put it out every year. Now each of our daughters have their sets as well – some with extra pieces. The shepherds have a hillside with several sheep, there is an inn with an innkeeper and his wife, 3 camels and 3 nomadic tents. (is it because the song “We Three KIngs” has influenced the number of “wise men from the east” we see in most manger scenes, or that the Bible mentions 3 gifts?)

I like the manger scene for several reasons besides the fact that children can play with it. It plays “Away in the Manger” and the star lights up over the manger. It does not bother me that I know the stable was probably a cave, or that the wise men did not visit the night Jesus was born as the shepherds did. It does bother me that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph look like they are of European decent, but Fisher-Price has corrected that in the latest set I gave our great-granddaughter. Mary, Joseph, and Jesus look like they live in the middle east. It does please me that the manger scene is Durable, Dependable, and Delightful – reflecting the reality of the greatest gift – Jesus.

  • Durable – Jesus as the one and only Son of God has existed throughout eternity – John 1: 1 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
  • Dependable – Jesus will never leave us or forsake us. Hebrews 2:17 – Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
  • Delightful – Jesus brings peace, joy, and love into our lives. There is nothing as delightful as the love of Jesus. John 3:16 – For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 14:27 – I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. Luke 2:9-11 – 9 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, 10 but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. 11 The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!

As we give gifts this Christmas – may we treasure above everything else the PERFECT gift of Jesus.