Trinitas Classical, Author at Trinitas Classical Christian School, Grand Rapids, MI

CCEC – Spread Your Wings and Fly

February 19th, 2025

We celebrate the enthusiastic responses to Mrs. Tellinghuisen’s biblical storytelling workshop at the Calvin University Worship Symposium. About 70 people attended and heard about Mrs. Tellinghuisen’s multi-media, multi-sensory story projects. Thanks to the 7/8 class for participating in the workshop and blessing the attendees with their enactment from Matthew 18, the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

Mrs. Tellinghuisen spoke about how we can help learners (of all ages) to grow in the knowledge and wonder and love of God’s word by encouraging them to tell stories using all of our senses. Here is a story based on an experience she shared:

***

Once upon a time, there was a Trinitas kindergartener who loved art, but art class could be stressful because it’s hard to capture the essence of one’s creative impulse. That’s true whether you are five years old or fifty years old. And indeed, occasionally this young artist would grow frustrated with the process and disappointed with the product. So when tears appeared one day during class, the teacher came over to see what the problem was.

The assignment was to draw colorful flowers on a large piece of paper, then paint a bright butterfly on a separate piecer of paper, cut it out, and paste it on the floral background. The young student was inconsolable. But it didn’t appear to be a case of pernicious perfectionism. The flowers were lovely, the art teacher said. And the butterfly was exactly what this student had envisioned. So why the tears?

Let’s pause for a moment so we don’t lose sight of the fact that stories are both windows and mirrors. Let’s use this one as a mirror right now. When you are upset, anxious, scared, or angry, do you find it hard to think straight and communicate clearly? Do emotions ever hit you so quickly and so fiercely that you don’t even know why you are feeling what you are feeling? If so, then you have entered a place of solidarity with this budding artist. And perhaps you have also discovered that when you can stop, breathe, and maybe even get a hug, the situation can change for the better. You’ve found space to find your voice.

Window time. We’re back at Trinitas. The art teacher, concerned for the student but struggling to understand what was needed in the moment, found the artist’s mother and said she was needed in the art room.

Stop. Breathe. Hug.

Mom: Can you show me your art? This is wonderful. Tell me about it. So what are you supposed to do next? Why don’t you want to glue your butterfly on those flowers?

Artist: Because then I can’t tell a story with it.

Kids say the wisest things. Butterflies fly. And wouldn’t a loving artist want to pick up that beautiful creation and let it flutter—up and down and here and there—before it lands for a sip of nectar? No glue needed here. Maybe just a small piece of tape to keep that butterfly attached to its flower while on display during Fine Arts Night. But then, set it free and see where it goes.

There’s nothing wrong with sitting down and reading a book. Some stories are made for curling up on a cozy couch. But next time you tell a story, see if there might be some way for you to pick it up and let it soar!

CCEC – The Most Wonder-ful Time of the Year?

December 12th, 2024

“The Most Wonder-ful Time of the Year?” by Rebecca Tellinghuisen

When you think of “spiritual disciplines,” what comes to mind? Prayer? Reading the Bible? Fasting? Journaling? These are all good spiritual disciplines, or faith practices as they are also called. But what about wonder? I sometimes think — wonder! — if wonder is foundational for all spiritual practices. When the Spirit of the Lord moves in us and acts through us, any response of devotion on our part comes from, or should come from, a place of gratitude, reflection, and wonder. And isn’t Advent the very season of wonder?

We hope your household is spending time in the Gospel of John this Advent. And we hope that you are practicing wonder as you read and discuss together. Ask questions. Share stories. Draw pictures. And most of all, give thanks, for this wonderful gift: the Word made flesh who made his dwelling among us to bring light and life to all.

Wonder is certainly a spiritual act, but here’s the “discipline” part. Sometimes it takes work. Wonder can hit us out of the blue, without any effort on our part. It’s hard not to be left amazed while standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon. But what about an ordinary Monday when you feel overworked, underprepared, or just generally out of sorts? You may wonder how you are going to make it through the day, but you might struggle to stop, reflect, and wonder how God can use you – and even bless you — in life’s busier moments.

Speaking of busy, here we are halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This can be a very full season. Lots to see. Lots to do. Lots to buy. Lots of this is good, of course. But does it leave us time to wonder? We invite you in the coming week to set aside time to pause and reflect on the beauty of this world, and specifically the beauty of the Incarnation, by reading or listening to “Recovering Wonder,” a short blog post from the Reformed Journal (and then taking a walk outside!) and by contemplating the words of the carol, “I Wonder as I Wander.”

“I Wonder as I Wander”
A Traditional Appalachian carol adapted by John Jacob Niles

I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,
how Jesus the Savior did come for to die
for poor ordinary people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.

When Mary birthed Jesus, ’twas in a cow’s stall
with wise men and farmers and shepherd and all.
but high from God’s heaven a star’s light did fall,
and the promise of ages it did then recall.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing,
a star in the sky, or a bird on the wing,
or all of God’s angels in heaven for to sing,
he surely could have it, ’cause he was the King.

I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,
how Jesus the Savior did come for to die
for poor ordinary people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.

CCE Corner – Consider the Dahlias

July 31st, 2024

We welcome Mrs. Tellinghuisen back to the CCE Corner as she shares some thoughts on beauty and testimony.

Consider the Dahlias – by Rebecca Tellinghuisen

“They look like Dr. Seuss flowers!”

So declared my 10-year-old upon seeing the rows and rows of dahlias at the Meijer Gardens Dahlia Show. And I never looked at them the same way again.

Dahlias captured my imagination the first time I attended the show. I was struck by the bold colors, the varied shapes and sizes, and the exquisite patterns. According to Better Homes and Gardens, there over 20,000 cultivars of dahlias.¹ Having no expertise in gardening, or even basic house plant tending, I had to look up the word “cultivars.” It means (I think) all the varieties developed through the process of cultivation by selective breeding. It’s the answer to the question I always had at the Dahlia Show: How can these all be dahlias? One has a moon-faced coral pink blossom. Another looks like a purple spiky sea urchin. And next to those are a painter’s palette of pom-poms that look like lollipops. If these are all dahlias, then almost anything could be a dahlia? Apparently not. There are no blue dahlias because they lack a certain enzyme.² I’m surprised I only just learned that fact, having attended the annual show at the Gardens for over a decade. How did I fail to notice there was no blue in that sea of color? I was probably too busy considering the dahlias.

They are mesmerizing. And yes, Seussical.

I’m not a photographer any more than I’m a gardener, but I bring my good camera (i.e., not just my phone) to the Dahlia Show and do my best. Photographs don’t do justice to some flowers, but dahlia patterns are so striking, the magnificence manages to find its way to you even in 2-D. Some varieties have the look of an advanced math problem. From what I’ve read, dahlias don’t appear to follow the Fibonacci sequence, though I still feel the urge to start counting, as if there might be a hidden code. There are deeper truths to discover, but they aren’t secret: beauty, elegance, symmetry, harmony. And glory.

The dahlias are indeed telling the glory of God.

“Testimony” was a weighty, almost scary, word to me when I was young. Testimony was what someone shared on a Sunday night service, usually a sinner-to-saint sort of story—wonderful, to be sure, but not something I could relate to as an ordinary “church kid.” Do I need that kind of story too?³ At summer camps during high school, each night ended with a campfire and a time of testimony. Campfire testimonies were generally about pretty big problems back at home and school. (We know young people are struggling with mental health concerns now, but they were 40 years ago too. We just didn’t have a clear enough lens to see it or the vocabulary to name it.) I sat there in the dark wondering, even fretting: Am I supposed to talk now? Is my testimony good enough? Is it “big” enough? I had bigger problems too, but I didn’t necessarily want to share those. At least not with a hundred other teens, some of whom I didn’t know, and most of whom I couldn’t see in the dark. We can share our stories anonymously (sometimes it’s the only way we dare let difficult words escape our lips), but I’m not sure we can testify anonymously.

Testimony is about witness and community. It does indeed take the form of “I once was lost, but now I’m found.” Praise God! I’m thankful I heard stories like that in church and around the campfire. But I wish 16-year-old me had realized that testimony was much bigger than those big stories because it includes our small stories too. “Small things make the big things grow — yeast that bubbles in the dough,” wrote Shirley Erena Murray.⁴ Small acts of love can make a big difference. But we shouldn’t forget about small words of testimony offered here and there, words that might find a home in another’s heart for years and years, opening a door to wonder, gratitude, or encouragement.

I once led a group of 3rd and 4th grade students in a Thoughtful Reader discussion on The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. Edward is a vainglorious china rabbit who gets lost and finds home. At one point on his journey, Edward is broken, smashed against the edge of a countertop. The group talked about the importance of that moment, and one 4th grader, recognizing that Edward’s story is everyone’s story, said, “We have to be broken inside too.” I haven’t seen that student since his family left Grand Rapids a few years ago. He would probably be surprised that his testimony remains in my heart. It reminds me that every (good) story is the story of finding home by being made new.

My little one’s Seussical insight was a word of testimony to me as well, a call to remember that God is a god of wonder and whimsy. When I travel out to the lakeshore or farther away to the mountains or just a few blocks over to the grocery store, may the beauty of God’s creation lead me to both awe and merriment: the spiritual discipline of delight! And, more importantly, I hope I remember to testify to that delight. It’s never meant just for us.

The dahlias will be back at Meijer Gardens on August 24 and 25. I have no connection to the Gardens or their marketing department, but I’ll issue an invitation nevertheless—in singsong, Seuss-like rhyme, of course.

Consider the dahlias,
consider them, friend.
Of patterns and colors
and size without end.

They teach us a lesson
undoubtedly true:
If God cares for these,
then he must care for you.

So when you see flowers
in field, farm, or woods,
Remember the beauty
of a world made so good.

¹https://www.bhg.com/gardening/flowers/facts-about-dahlias/
²https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-chemistry-of-dahlia-flower-colors#:~:text=The%20colors%20of%20dahlia%20flowers,also%20influences%20dahlia%20flower%20color.
³Jennifer Holberg’s wonderful book, Nourishing Narratives: The Power of Story to
Shape Our Faith, speaks to our tendency to view stories as either “saint” or “sinner.”
Coincidentally, I ran into Jennifer at the Dahlia Show once.
⁴https://www.hopepublishing.com/find-hymns-hw/hw2909.aspx

Welcome, Ms. Sytsma!

June 22nd, 2023

If you stop by the office, you might see a new face behind the desk! We are pleased to introduce Ms. Natalie Sytsma (soon to be Mrs. Mouw) as our new administrative assistant and art teacher. Ms. Sytsma graduated from Calvin University with a B.A. in classical studies and literature. Having been raised in a classical school, she knows the fruit of classical education firsthand and is eager to join the Trinitas community both in the classroom and the office. For the past year and a half, Ms. Sytsma has taught Latin to K–8th graders. She is also a self-employed artist and proficient in drawing, painting, and calligraphy and has been able to share her experience with students teaching in various art camps. Her professional experience includes working at Calvin University’s Center Art Gallery (architectural research and gallery exhibitions) and administrative assistant roles at both Calvin and in a church office.

Summer Office Hours

June 9th, 2023

Please remember that the office is open Monday through Thursday, from 8:00 a.m. to noon. If you plan to stop by school this summer, we recommend you call first as staff may be unavailable or away from their desks during office hours.

Keep an eye on your mailbox as report cards and certificates should be arriving the week of June 26.

CCE Corner – Goldilocks, Creaturehood, and the Posture of Humility

May 25th, 2023

Our Virtue of the Quarter is Humility. “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” may not be the first story that comes to mind for instruction in this virtue, but had the tale of the burglarous little girl been available to Aristotle, he might have chosen it to illustrate a fundamental observation about all virtues. According to this ancient Greek philosopher, virtue is a mean between two extremes. In Goldilocks’ vocabulary, “A virtue is something not too much and not too little, it’s just right.” Courage, for example, is the mean between the extreme of cowardice on the one hand and rashness on the other. Neither Goldilocks nor Aristotle had much to say about humility specifically, but we can use the idea of getting things just right or finding the mean between extremes as a fruitful way to explore this virtue.

So, what are the two extremes, the vices, on either side of the virtue of humility? The more obvious vice is pride. Simply put, pride is thinking too much of oneself, of one’s abilities or importance or worth, especially in comparison to others. Pride can be a private sentiment, but it also often seeks to draw the attention of others. The proud “are like the fly on the chariot wheel, crying, ‘See how fast I make it go!’”¹ The other extreme is a less obvious vice because it is sometimes mistaken for the virtue of humility and it goes by a less familiar name: pusillanimity. Pusillanimity is thinking too little of oneself; it is a “smallness of soul,” a smallness “that shrinks from noble or arduous tasks.”²

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CCE Corner – Shaped by Story

March 29th, 2023

Mrs. Tellinghuisen returns to the CCE Corner with another reflection inspired by the Calvin Worship Symposium and the March 6 Vital Worship Grant event.

We are story-shaped people who live in a story-shaped culture. Let’s withhold any “that’s good” or “that’s bad” judgment for the time being (spoiler: it depends on the stories we hear and tell) and simply acknowledge the reality. Everyone and everything tells a story. For all that we see around us has history, context, function, and purpose. When we walk through a neighborhood, we are not just seeing houses and sidewalks and trees and utility lines. We are seeing a story. When we stroll through an art exhibit, we aren’t just seeing pictures and sculptures and artifacts. We are seeing a story. When we meet a person for the first time, we aren’t just exchanging words and social pleasantries with someone. We are seeing a story incarnate.

Granted, we don’t see the whole story. To know more about that neighborhood, you’d need to talk to some of the neighbors and research the history of the city that led to that area being developed. To learn more about the area or people group featured in the art exhibit, you would have to read some books, take some classes, or even travel to that location. To learn more about another human? Well, you would need years together. And even a lifetime together wouldn’t tell you everything. (You’d probably learn more about yourself along the way too!)

Stories are involved and complex. They take time to tell. But we like facts, don’t we? “Just the facts, ma’am,” said Dragnet’s Sergeant Friday. Facts are simple, obvious, clear-cut. Unless they aren’t. One need only flip through the various news channels to see that we don’t always agree on facts. But you don’t have to take the path that leads to flat-out relativism to recognize that facts are always internalized and interpreted before we inject them into our conversations and contexts. If this sounds at least a little disconcerting, it is. How can we live in community (familial, local, national, global) if we are “my story is what I know” kind of people? On our own? Not so well. But there is a good answer for this, and hopefully your mind is already going there.

Before we talk about that answer, let’s look for the good in the fact that we all have “my story” and the fact that we are story-shaped storytellers and—story listeners—at our core. Consider the different answers to these “simple” questions.

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CCE Corner – Thoughtful Readers: Playing with and Talking About Good Stories

March 9th, 2023

Trinitas recently hosted two annual highlights: Book Character Day and Thoughtful Reader Book Club. Each year, students and staff look forward to leaving their uniforms home and coming dressed like a favorite Biblical, historical, or book character. Last Wednesday was a delightful day for the likes of Fantastic Mr. Fox, Ebenezer Scrooge, Anne of Green Gables, King Arthur, and St. Paul to be greeted at the door by Principal Gandalf and to do their math lessons with Grandmother West Wind and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, literature with Athena and Laura Ingalls Wilder, Latin with the golden fleece, history with the Cat in the Hat, and logic with Tweedle Dee (or Dum, we’re not sure which). Students return home excited to read new books or re-read an old favorite. Some even begin planning next year’s costume.

During Friday Focus time the previous week, we enjoyed activities and discussions related to our Thoughtful Reader Book Club selections. This year, our shared reading for the younger grades included fables by Aesop and Arnold Lobel. Students in grades 3/4 talked about how stories that feature animals and their particular characteristics (e.g., monkeys are inquisitive, beavers are industrious) can communicate truths about human strengths and weaknesses. The morals at the end of the fables continue to instruct over 2,000 years later!

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Special Presentation – “Complicated Narratives and Important Failures”

March 3rd, 2023

We are pleased to present “Complicated Narratives and Important Failures” on Monday, March 6, at 7:00 p.m. Dr. Jennifer Holberg from Calvin University will speak about the shaping influence of stories and storytelling. Register online or call the school at (616) 855-6518. (Registration is not required, but encouraged for planning purposes.)

This program is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the presentation.

Attendees should use the upper parking lot and entrance for Saint Mark Lutheran Church on the west end of the building (access to the lot is from Maple Creek Ave.). Please note that childcare will not be available.

This program is made possible through a Vital Worship Grant from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Grand Rapids, Michigan, with funds provided by Lilly Endowment Inc.

CCE Corner – Where the Air Is Clear

February 23rd, 2023

We continue our series of reflections inspired by the recent Calvin Worship Symposium. This week, Mrs. Tellinghuisen shares about a faith practices workshop she attended.

A few weeks ago, the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire recorded overnight wind gusts of over 100 miles per hour and a temperature of −47 °F. This produced a new US record low windchill temperature of −108 °F. These conditions are comparable to what airplanes experience at cruising altitude. I was told by my brother (a biologist and weather fact enthusiast, who lives in South Dakota, where they know a lot about cold and wind), that it wasn’t the cold and wind that led to such extreme conditions, but an interesting atmospheric phenomenon. In effect, the top of Mount Washington became part of the stratosphere. Talk about a mountaintop experience! But not one anyone would want.

Mountaintop experiences usually involve moments of clarity, conviction, or renewal. From a spiritual—and Christian—perspective, it might be descriptive of a moment when someone felt especially close to God or felt the moving of the Holy Spirit in a very tangible way. For me, any visit to mountains can lead to a mountaintop experience. The landscape inspires awe and draws my eyes upward and inclines my heart toward praise and wonder.

I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 121:1–2)

The psalmist was saying more than just mountains are pretty. High places were locations for pagan rituals and sacrifices (e.g., Ahab and prophets of Baal as told in I Kings 18). But the psalmist is saying that when he looks to hills, it is not to seek answers in the idols of man. He trusts in the one true God, maker of heaven and earth. In the gospel accounts, Jesus goes to a mountain to find solitude and to commune with his father in prayer on several occasions. One of the most memorable accounts is the Transfiguration, where Jesus appears radiant in his glory to Peter, James, and John. And, more than that, Moses and Elijah appear alongside him (Matthew 17:1–13; Mark 9:2–13; Luke 9:28–36). Now that was a mountaintop experience! Isn’t it remarkable then that those same three disciples were the ones who fell asleep, ran, and even denied? How could they have seen that and not stood firm? Or maybe, if we are honest, we know all too well what it means to see and yet forget.

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