Conways' Summer Update
Conways' Summer Update
The Good, True and Beautiful
By Pearlyn
I’m late on this update, and it is about time I put these thoughts into words. We’re now well into summer, and have for the first time in our lives experienced the coming of spring. Seeing the trees come to life and colour fill the landscape was exciting, but it also made clear just how fleeting time is. No bloom stayed the same from one day to the next as spring continued its advance. So too our family – the kids have grown taller, funnier, cheekier…and more into who God made them to be.
The Good
The end of the school year brought many good things. I’ve been volunteering at the school, and so got to see how the kids were doing in their classrooms. It was a busy end to the school year with Recitation Day (the children memorised Scripture and poetry and recited these to the school and families at High Park), spring musical, field trips and awards day. Tests were administered without the children knowing they were being tested and somehow the school year was done and the kids have graduated Grade 2, Grade 1 and junior kindergarten.
We moved quickly from the bustle of the end of the school year to a visit from my mum, and it was good for us all to spend time together. We spent some time out of the city, deeper in God’s creation which was a much-needed breather. (Quite literally, as the air outside the city is so much cleaner. It’s been smoggy here lately.) I’ll let the photos do the talking as to the glory of God’s creation here in Canada.
The True
I feel like I’ve been saved twice in the last six months here. By that, I mean that by grace, two truths have become clearer to me than ever before. The first is that my faith in the saving work of Christ on the cross is not a work, not something I do for God. I’m not entirely sure what I was operating on before, but it is now clear to me that I do not need to "fervently" believe, as if any fervour or effort on my part could make the gospel more true. It simply is the reality of things – the Son of God became a man, and in dying He suffered the consequences of my sins in my place. But He did not stay dead, and in rising has begun the renewal of all creation. This is simply the state of things in the world and history. All that is required of me is to accept that I exist in this reality. Or as the shorter catechism says (when defining faith) to "rest" and "receive."
The second, is that there is a man on the throne of heaven. That man is Lord and King and my allegiance is to Him. Where I previously vacillated between various allegiances, I now feel more firmly tethered to where my allegiance needs to lie, and therefore where my efforts need to be directed. It doesn’t mean that the mundane work I do now becomes less mundane, but it does mean that I know that what I do has value in the King’s reckoning, even if the world deems it to have absolutely no monetary value. (Think helping to prepare homework bundles at the kids’ school, being an extra adult on a school excursion…) It is also still unnerving to not be able to earn money to add to the family’s finances, but I trust that as I do what is of value to the King, He provides what we need as a good king would.
The Beautiful
The rhythm of our life here has allowed us to witness and appreciate beauty around us. It's been more than two months, but I still am filled with so much joy when I remember the quality of the musical the children’s school put up. Some of their teachers adapted, composed and wrote music for and directed a musical rendition of the Canadian classic, Anne of Green Gables. All the students were involved, singing songs that brought to life the themes of adoption, forgiveness and reconciliation through the life of Anne. It is really beautiful what can be wrought when we use the talents God has given us to speak truth, light and love into the world. (You can watch the recorded version of the musical here.)
Watching the musical sent me down the Anne rabbit hole and I re-read some of the books of the series I’d read when I was 11. Some of the lines resonated with me in this Canadian season of our life in ways they had not before. At the close of the book, Anne talks of a bend in the road.
“When I left Queen’s my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla. I wonder how the road beyond it goes – what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows – what new landscapes – what new beauties – what curves and hills and valleys further on.”
Our life has certainly taken a bend, coming to Canada. We don’t know what lies beyond our bend, but we hope that we will see beauty in wherever God leads us to tread.
Post-script – As the Lord has deemed it, part of the bend in the road involves our family growing. The Conways go from five to six in February 2026!
