To Have and To Hold

On April 11, we gathered as a school community to celebrate 30 years of lifelong learning at Redeemer School. Our Celebration Gala was a beautiful night of current and alumni parents, current and former staff, and alumni students praising God for his faithfulness and remembering the things that make Redeemer School distinct. Here is an excerpt from a speech shared by Redeemer School teacher, Advancement Coordinator, and parent Ashley Murray:

Last summer, as a staff, we read through a wonderful book called Much May be Done with Sparrows by Karen Glass, filled with essays about some of the gems of wisdom that Charlotte Mason sprinkled throughout her work. One of the essays that really stayed with me was titled “Wonder to Start With”, and was taken from a Charlotte Mason story called “What a Salvage” about parents exploring their responsibility (and privilege) to teach and inspire their children. In this story from Charlotte Mason’s Formation of Character, a family is spending some time in the southeast of England and their children are marveling at the discovery that the hills had chalk in them.

“Chalk and a blackboard were inseparably associated, and a hill of chalk was as surprising to the children as if all the trees were bread and cheese. Here was wonder to start with, wonder and desire to know.” (Formation of Character, 124)

“What is that white line on the flint, Bob?’ —

‘Chalk, father,’ with surprise at my dullness; and then the unfolding of the tale of wonder — thousands of lovely, infinitely small shells in that scrawl of chalk; each had, ages and ages ago, its little inmate-and so on.

Wide eyes and open mouths, until skeptical Dick— ‘Well, but, father, how did they get here? How could they crawl or swim to the dry land when they were dead?’ More wonders, and a snub for that small boy.

‘Why, this hillside we are sitting on is a bit of that old sea-bottom!’ And still the marvel grew, until, trust me, there is not a feature of the chalk that is not written down in le journal intime [the private diary of each child’s soul.] They know the soft roll of the hills, the smooth dip of the valleys, the delights of travelers’ joy, queer old yews, and black-berrying in the sudden ‘bottoms’ of the chalk. The endless singing of the lark—nothing but larks—the trailing of cloud-shadows over the hills, the blue skies of Sussex, blue as those of Naples—these things are theirs to have and to hold, and are all associated with the chalk; They have the sense of the earth-mother, a true connection of things, which makes for poetry.”

As a mother of Redeemer School students, I have witnessed moments just like this in our own family’s travels. I bet many of you have as well. In cities across the country, my children have recognized paintings as though they were old friends waiting for them in art museums. One child comfortably noting, “Look, Mom, that’s a Rembrandt. You can tell because of the way he paints light.” Or, an excited “Mom, Haystacks! We did a picture study on that Monet painting just last week! I didn’t know they were actually so BIG!” These familiar treasures found in curated collections are part of this feast laid out for them and have become cherished companions, tucked away in galleries and also in their hearts.

Consider the picture of the Globe Theatre, drawn by Evan Gibbons, a Redeemer School student who graduated in 2008. Sadly, Evan passed away from cancer a few months after his high school graduation in 2012. While sorting through some of his things, Jeff and Debbie Gibbons came across this drawing and looked at it in a way they hadn’t before. They noticed as they observed closely, some letters sketched in the rafters. An E, a V, an A, and an N. Evan had hidden his name in the rafters of the Globe Theater! When Jeff told me this story at a wedding last summer, I had tears in my eyes immediately. Not only because of the sweetness of this story and the profoundness of Gibbons’ loss, but because I thought, “that’s it! That is exactly what Redeemer School students do.”

When our children learn about something, when they encounter it as part of the feast laid out for them, it becomes theirs! They build these intimate relationships with the places and people and animals and creatures and stories they learn about. It becomes theirs, to have and to hold! Our students all, in some way, see their names in the rafters of the Globe.

Psalm 8:3-4 says “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” This wondering about and considering the things in creation, this science of relations with what our children are learning, we pray, is just one way that our children are also deepening their relationship with the creator. Wonder to start with, and wonder and desire to know the one who made the turtle, and the tiny crab, and the humpback whale, the playwright, and who made the child in His image, is what Redeemer School has faithfully endeavored to inspire for 30 years now and Lord willing, for many years and generations to come. This is both the practice and prayer of our school, that forming these connections with the things the Lord has made would also grow the desire to wonder and to know the God that made them. That this science of relations to the things of this world would increase our students’ love and devotion to the hands that placed them there.