The Joy of the Familiar

And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. —Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NLT

As I write this, two cake layers are cooling on my counter filling the kitchen with the aroma of flour and rich butter and yummy goodness. They’re waiting for a thick spreading of raspberry jam to seal them together and a sprinkling of confectioner’s sugar on top with perhaps a garnish of mint leaves and fresh raspberries. Tomorrow is my mother’s birthday, and I’ve baked her favorite cake, Victoria sandwich cake. The recipe has passed down the generations from my British great-grandmother.

When I take that first moist bite of dense cake, I taste home and tradition and happiness. Baking a Victoria sandwich cake is one of our traditions right along with hot cross buns at Easter. It’s woven into our family’s fabric and is as familiar and dear as a favorite sweater or the view from our back deck that always warms my soul.

Something about the “treasured familiar” evokes joy and safety in my heart. Keeps me stabilized. Reminds me of the past and declares that the present is still good. Years ago, when I was asked by a young mothers’ group to share with them some mothering secrets, I asked our two college-age daughters what they thought I had done well. They would know best what had blessed them. Each of them had some unique thoughts, but what stood out to me was how many of our traditions made their top ten lists. Like making gingerbread houses at Christmas out of heavy cream cartons and graham crackers. The repetition of something done in celebration stayed with them and made them smile.

Favorite passages in the Bible evoke that same pleasure. This past May, I spoke at a women’s retreat and assigned the attendees a morning quiet time reading of Psalm 23. By and large these were older Christian women, who had that six-verse psalm memorized. Many of them later confessed they had rolled their eyes a wee bit, thinking they wouldn’t learn much from this reading, because they already knew it so well. And yet, as we all met with the Lord the next morning, seeking His words in His Word for us that day, God met us uniquely and personally with fresh revelation from old, familiar words. (I’ll be sharing in a follow-up blog June 27, the new discovery I made in that familiar psalm.)

In the meantime, the really precious part about this was that God showed each one of us a different perspective, a different lesson. The Bible is truly not like any other book. It’s living. God tells us to read His Word and meditate on it and repeat the words over and over. In Deuteronomy, when Moses instructs the Israelites how to succeed in the promised land, he emphasizes the importance of reading and rereading what God has said. Over and over. “… when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 7b-8 NLT).

Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy that you already “know it.” Nope. God speaks fresh words whenever we come to the Bible with a heart to learn. It’s astounding. It’s life-changing. And it is most definitely life-giving. Like a familiar birthday cake served up fresh year after year bringing back cherished memories and adding new ones, a feeling of joy and safety comes from refreshing our minds with God’s good words to us. Take and eat. His words are like honey for the soul.

Thank You, Heavenly Father, for Your powerful, living, unchanging Word. How stunning it is to realize that we have available to us Your love letter and instructions at the ready for every need. Help us to savor the familiar and learn more as we feast on the very best—your good words to us. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

You are loved,
Sharon

Sweet Selah Ministries

Vision
To inspire a movement away from the belief that “busy is better”
and toward the truth of God’s Word that stillness and knowing
Him matter most—and will be reflected in more effective work and service

 Mission
To offer biblical resources and retreats that help women pause (Selah)
and love God more deeply as they know Him more intimately (Sweet)

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