Chosen…

“Red Rover, Red Rover, let Emily come over!” I was chosen. My team depended on me to make the right choice, to choose the weakest link to break. Could I do this? Much depended on my choice. Suddenly my legs felt as heavy as lead. Although I willed them to move, I looked at the sea of choices, and my feet became stuck in ‘molasses’. I could hear laughter and derisive calls from the opposing team. Finally, the last thrust of energy, but I didn’t break through the linked hands. Defeat. I was swallowed by the opposing team to hoots of laughter. Mortified, I held hands with my new team, but my heart wasn’t in the game. Some useless ‘if only’s came to my mind.

Decision
making and having to choose became something I avoided as much as
possible. But it was no use. Whether it was ‘just a game’ or a life
decisions, living seemed to hold many opportunities and challenges.
As time goes by, the number decisions threaten to overwhelm me.

When
determining my career path, I had no plan or career guidance
counselor. It must have been the age (1940’s) when young girls
either became a teacher or married. My Dad suggested teaching.
Later, after marriage and four children, I agreed with him, and I
returned to college to prepare.

From
the ‘terrible two’s’ when we learn to articulate, “No!” We want
to rebel against any spoken or unspoken expectation. Why? We want
to order our own lives. I pondered this desire trying to understand.
We want to be comfortable, loved, a bit better than others and on
top of the mythical mountain all on our own. The important part of
life for us is forgotten – our Creator. God created us for his
pleasure to serve Him and worship Him. When we struggle for
independence from God, we will never find peace in this life or be
understand joy and peace. Instead of independence from God, it is
when we learn who we are and accept living for God that we are
blessed in many ways.

As
a child, I viewed my Great Grandfather Jacob Loewen with awe. A tall
man with a snow white beard with a peace and confidence were his
aura. He never studied the art of decision-making and yet his life
was a decision of and for serving others. Jacob Loewen, born October
5, 1855, in Russia, grew up on the green steppes of the Ukraine. At
19 years of age, he migrated to America, with three brothers and two
sisters and his parents. He attended a little sod school for one
month, mostly to learn the English language. When he was 20 years
old, he accepted Jesus and was baptized. His interest was in tilling
the soil and raising fruit trees on his father’s farm. Two years
later the Isaac Leppke family arrived from Russia and homesteaded
across the road from the Loewen family. Justina Leppke, a buxom
beauty, was hired to help with housework for the Loewen family. One
day Jacob nudged his brother John, “Have you noticed what a good
worker Justina is? Why don’t you marry her?”

“I’ve
already picked me out a wife,” John retorted. “Why don’t you
marry her?” Good idea! (Decision accomplished!)

Some
weeks after his 23^rd birthday, Jacob made his intentions
public in church. After the close of the long Sunday morning German
sermon, December 1878, the minister announced those wishing to be
married should please come forward.

Jacob
arose from the men’s side of the church and Justina from the women’s
and they met at the altar. Justina, in an elegant black lace cap and
shiny black sateen gown while Jacob wrestled with a stiff white shirt
collar. At the conclusion of the ceremony, that included many
fervent prayers in the German language, Jacob and Justina were
pronounced man and wife. Jacob marched back to the men’s side and
Justina slipped back among the ladies. They moved in with his
parents until the babies began to arrive. Jacob found ways to serve
others – setting broken bones and tooth pulling – aside from
tilling the rich prairie land. His ‘dental’ career began when his
mother complained of loose teeth, which he pulled to ease her
trouble. The word spread, Jacob Loewen was a ‘tooth-puller’. People
flocked to him and teeth were extracted minus anesthesia with a
pliers. One day little boy, Henry, fractured his arm. In the
absence of the one settlement doctor, Jacob set the young boy’s arm.
He also practiced Swedish message. Soon many flocked to Jacob for
broken bones, pains and aches.

Medicine
was hard to come by, so this dentist-farmer-doctor took to apothecary
work as well. He brewed fats, herbs and spirits into medicines and
ointments which became in demand locally. He dried rain worms on the
tool shed roof, extracted fats for salves, simmered goose-grease and
sulphur. Justina did not complain of the stench for after all, these
were gifts from God! In his earlier years, since there were few
undertakers on the prairie, Jacob Loewen took care of that job. He
prepared the bodies for burial by packing ice (when available or cold
sand when it wasn’t) around the bodies until the funeral service
would be held.

Jacob’s
home became a haven for visiting missionaries and clergy. The long
oak dining table always had room for one or more added to his nine
sons and four daughters. He was concerned for the cause of education
despite his shortened time in school to learn English. He also led
singing in the Mennonite church. He learned to read Ziffern, numbers
instead of notes in the musical score, a system he used in America
when he directed the church choir.

Jacob
Loewen was never too busy to begin breakfast by reading a chapter
from God’s word and prayer. The meal ended by singing a well-known
hymn. He always showed interest in his children and 60
grandchildren. (He was also interested in his great grandchildren –
as attested by a memory I have of visiting with him as he sat at his
roll-top desk. His blue eyes twinkled as he slowly rolled the desk
open and handed me a round white peppermint imprinted with “XXX”.)

Jacob
died at the age of 86 with the title ‘Prairie Patriarch’ and the
honorary title of Doctor. Jacob and Justina celebrated 62 years of
married life in 1940. Each Loewen Family Reunion is a time of
remembrance and appreciation of this ‘Prarie Patriarch’ by the family
that gathers.

Jacob’s
life shows prioritized decisions of service and faith in God. No
time was spent in making lists of brainstorming options or
determining the steps of critical thinking or a studied approach to
life’s difficulties. He trusted God for leading in his life. Many
years after, his grandchildren and great grandchildren and those with
more ‘greats’, learn about this man and are inspired to become this
era’s life of faith and service. For Jacob Loewen’s pattern of
living for God can become ours.

Steadfast
love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down
from the sky. Psalm 85:10-11

Once
we choose to serve our Lord, we are chosen and our path is decided.
No matter how many side-paths beckon us, we walk securely in our
Lord. Even when we are unable to see the next step, we trust in the
One we have chosen to follow.

“I
was chosen to serve/ I was chosen to love/ I was chosen to be/ To
belong to Jesus above.” (eac)

Peace
I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I
give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be
afraid. John 14:27And
the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7And
let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were
called in one body. And be thankful. Colossians 3:15Grace,
mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus
Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love. II John 1:3

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